Opinion: Editorial
Disband, ASM
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Also by Badger Herald Editorial Board:
- The Invisible Man Award: Wyndham Manning (May 7, 2009)
- The People's Choice Award: Jacqueline Hitchon et. al (May 7, 2009)
- The Lifetime Achievement Award: ASM (May 7, 2009)
- Honest representation (May 5, 2009)
- Junger for ASM Chair (May 5, 2009)
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After months of planning, our student government’s truest defenders and truest representatives collapsed at the finish line. After two days of voting and a nearly yearlong stretch of calculated, nuanced discussion, listening sessions and tireless planning, the push to reform our student government has failed.
In the end, the more thoughtful leaders of the reform movement failed not because their arguments were weak, the process was flawed or the direction was off — it was because they, as Chynna Haas said during the debate, are not grassroots organizers. Their lack of outreach, solid campaign strategy or attempts to recruit support from political groups was their downfall. The Vote No Coalition had the bodies and strategy to win. Although the effort for reform was ideologically sound, Associated Students of Madison fell into its same patterns of disorganization and complacency — just as we feared when we admonished them to step up their game last month.
While some may want to fight the vote, appeal the decision, throw the same measure on a ballot for April — there will be no resurgent campaign, no second wind, no “one last chance.”
This was ASM’s last chance. To entertain the notion of propping up a decaying corpse in hopes that it lurches back to life is an insult to the student body.
At this point, ASM can do only one thing in hopes of reviving some sort of viable system of representation on this campus — bury this parliamentary casket once and for all.
The alternative seems fine to student activists — keep the structure in its current form, continue to fund student groups with segregated fees and go about approving them with a body of elected officials in hopes the 15 percent turnout will lead to a renewed interest in our student government and a more appropriate and active leadership.
But this is a delusion. Vote No can point to the ASM leadership of 1999 as being their preferred model, but the 1999 ASM actions were catalyzed by a massive battle over segregated fees taken to the Supreme Court and a more activist climate — on both sides of the political spectrum — on campus. The grassroots movement they hold on to was not bolstered by the structure of ASM but happened in spite of it.
And that has been proven by the consistent failure to run a legitimate government since then: the poorly run Union South vote, the chronicle low voter turnout, the consistent lack of quorum at Student Council meetings, the “State of the ASM” address, the viewpoint neutrality comedy of errors from 2001 until just recently and the Legislative Affairs group that can’t lobby at the Capitol. And this is just in the last few years.
ASM’s leadership admitted defeat before and knew reform was the only option. Ensuing the passage of the constitution was ASM’s last chance to prove it had the organizational and leadership capabilities to represent the student body on campus. And it failed. Now that the keystone of this bridge to reform has crumbled, it only makes sense to clear the debris.
ASM must be disbanded. While we do not enjoy advocating for a vacuum of representation, we’ve been allowing such a state of affairs to exist for far too long. We hope out of this obliteration of the current system comes a concerted effort from concerned students to craft a new system — from scratch — without overt political connections that will actually engage the student body.
There will be those who argue this is not a solution and disbandment is giving up on the student body. We think it is a far greater shame to allow this farce of a government persist, sucking up tuition dollars for the salaries ASM chairs, most of whom only serve as court jesters for the campus press and the
So let us start over. Don’t appeal, don’t try again. Try something else, and forget ASM even existed.
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This is moronic. The current structure needs work, but it's better than having absolutely no representation. 15% of students, somewhere around 6,000 total voters, actually took time to cast a vote on the constitution. Is it an ideal representation? Absolutely not. But, it's better than scrapping a system in favor of a vaccum.
AMEN!
ASM needs to start DOING something for the student body. If they separated SSFC and Finance Committee into a separate non-ASM entity, what would the remainder have to show for themselves? The textbook swap, but that's about it.
If the vote to amend the constitution didn't pass, how in the world would a vote to disband pass?
AMEN. It is clear that the group that views themselves as elite in ASM doesn't have the ability to actually accomplish anything. Its time to scrap the broken down system and form a new student voice. The problem isn't the structure of ASM, the problem is the bureaucratic morons who value politicking over student needs. Its time for ASM to grow up and let go. Allow the students who are actually involved in making a difference on campus create a student leadership body that actually works.
haha . . . leave it to the Badger Herald to advocate for the most ridiculous solution
1:17 pm, what's ridiculous is ASM, and its relentless inability to be effective in outreach to the student body. This campus deserves a better class of student government. For the sake of us, the 40,000 strong student body, disband now.
Keep SSFC, and Finance in their current form. Restructure the rest.
Wow, Badger Herald, last week you were urging us to vote yes, and now you're saying ASM should disband?
Well...what happens next week?
I think ASM's main problem is that the students who care about student government are already working for ASM, and nobody else is motivated currently to get involved. This polarization means the vast majority of students have no idea about their own student government. ASM needs to find a way to reach out to more students and do an overhaul of their public image. Now seems like the perfect time to do it, since they basically have to overhaul their structure anyway...