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Six ASM affiliates sign contract with competition

The Student Government continued to gain momentum Tuesday, holding yet another meeting in its attempt to incapacitate the Associated Students of Madison.

ASM, the only recognizable student government body at the University of Wisconsin for over a decade, has experienced an influx of criticism in recent days after its botched election March 29.

But according to Steve Schwerbel, chair of the Constitutional Committee of the Student Government, problems with ASM extend far beyond last week's controversy.

"The segregated fee system we believe is a really bloated system that's out of control right now, and that needs to be drastically reformed," Schwerbel said. "Probably 99 percent of what student government should be doing right now is controlling segregated fees and making sure that — frankly — they're as low as possible."

Three current ASM members and three more ASM candidates signed a "contract with the students" Thursday, pledging their collective belief that reform within ASM has become "practically impossible."

"Our position is, was, always has been that ASM is dead," Schwerbel, a former Badger Herald staff columnist, said. "We believe this is the only reform method."

David Lapidus, who lost his bid for the Dane County Board to fellow UW student Ashok Kumar Tuesday, was among the contract signatories and spent the evening with his fellow Student Government hopefuls.

While Lapidus signed the document, he will remain a candidate for ASM seats on both Student Council and on its Student Services Finance Committee.

"There's no way [Student Government] is going to get off the ground before the end of this year," Lapidus, a freshman, said. "As long as [ASM] is a student government, I need to make every effort to reform it."

For now, Schwerbel said, the goal is to have a Constitution written before the end of the semester. With its content largely dependent on what the student body wants, the Student Government plans to hold a listening session sometime this week or next.

Eric Saar, vice-chair of ASM's SSFC, said he is not concerned about any threat posed by Schwerbel's organization.

The three ASM members who signed the Student Government contract — Tim Schulz, Sol Grosskopf and Lapidus — represent a small minority of ASM, he added.

"The problems that we have in ASM are not that bad," Saar said. "I think they're going to realize creating a new student government is a lot harder than they think it will be."