The University of Wisconsin Associated Students of Madison are once again gearing up for their campus wide elections.

Four ASM Student Council positions are open for freshman representatives in addition to four positions for ASM Student Services Finance Committee.

ASM Student Election Commission chair Leah Moe said students filling the open positions will serve as representatives for the entire UW campus.

"The freshman representatives sit on Student Council where they can take the lead on tackling some of the campus issues ASM has really been involved in," Moe said.

Issues that are important to freshmen, Moe said, include campus safety, textbook prices and access to affordable groceries.

"A lot of freshmen see sticker shock when they see the high textbook prices for the first time, and that's an issue that I know a lot of freshman rep candidates are interested in," Moe said.

Individuals elected onto SSFC will be in charge of distributing student segregated fees — funds every UW student pays in addition to tuition bills.

"The students elected to SSFC are in charge of working with the committee to allocate money to student groups," Moe said. "That's one of the really big issues right now with the changing nature of seg fee policy and some of the big issues in the whole UW System right now."

In terms of being eligible for the open ASM positions, Moe said freshman representatives must have less then 24 credits and the SSFC positions are open to all UW students.

In an effort to inform students about the candidates running for the positions, ASM will host a meet-and-greet ice cream social on Oct. 15 at 7 p.m. in Chadbourne Residential College.

"It's a chance for individual students to meet the candidates and learn their positions on the issues instead of just going up and having a ballot of names they don't know," Moe said, adding all candidates were invited to the event and all students are encouraged to attend.

Despite election mishaps in the past, Moe said voting in the election is a way for students to have a voice on campus.

"I think people can see that there are a lot of campus issues out there that people really need to step up and take a lead on," Moe said. "If people really want to get invested in their student government, then voting is a good way to do so."

UW freshman Conor O'Hagen, who is running for one of the freshmen representative positions, said he is running for ASM to get involved on the UW campus.

"In a nutshell, the reason I'm running is to bring about change to an organization that's had a long tradition of improving the school, basically creating a new image, a new direction to move in," O'Hagen said.

UW freshman Julie Chou, who is also a candidate representative, said she believes ASM serves as an alliance between students and the administration.

Chou added she hopes students inform themselves before they vote.

"Students should become informed abut the candidates, look around at the campaigns other candidates put on and read their platform statements," Chou said.