The Associated Students of Madison held their third meeting of the school year Wednesday night. 

Following roll call and an open forum, the council discussed legislation to renew the contract of the Public History Project. The project, started by former UW Chancellor Rebecca Blank, focuses on providing services to the community. This includes issuing assistance development curriculum, amplifying current conversations regarding equity and investigating the University of Wisconsin’s underutilized archives.

The Public History Project recently presented the “Sifting and Reckoning” exhibition at the Chazen Museum of Art. 

The council came to the unanimous decision to pass the legislation. Renewing the four-year-long contract with $1 million in private funds.

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The second legislation ASM voted on was confirming the nominees made by the ASM Nominations Board, chaired by Steven Shi. The debate focused on whether the nominations committee conducted a fair and open nominations process. 

Representatives Ethan Dickler and Katie Mangus said they left the nominations board in the middle of the process because they saw numerous examples of wrongdoing by Shi and other members of the committee. The “wrongdoings” included favoritism, predetermined thoughts on a candidate and a hostile environment. All of these are against the code of conduct.  

Representative Andrew Pietroske, a member of the nominations committee, defended Shi, saying a fair process was conducted and there was no need to go through the nomination process again. Shi closed the debate by acknowledging that he may have made a few mistakes throughout the process, but believes the correct candidates were chosen and there was no bias in the nomination process that the committee conducted. 

Following a roll call vote of more than two thirds of the council supporting the nominees, the legislation was passed and the nominees were confirmed. 

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The final legislation ASM voted on was the Student Council’s approval of an event grant for “An Endless Poetry” produced by Foundland Musical. Before the meeting, the Grant Allocation Committee approved the grant of $4,168.98 for the event. ASM also approved the grant.

The ASM council’s next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, October 26th.