The University of Wisconsin’s student government continues to prepare its new constitution but has yet to set a date to vote on the proposal.
The Associated Students of Madison intend to have the vote sometime in February.
“The constitution was established in the second meeting of the 15th session in May, and they’ve been working on it all throughout the summer and throughout the past semester,” said Hannah Karns, ASM vice-chair.
Members of ASM said a variety of factors were preventing the date from being set.
“Student Council voted and passed the legislation to vote the Wednesday before exams, so it didn’t leave us a lot of time,” said Student Election Commission Chair Katherine Tondrowski.
Tondrowski said ASM is also working with the survey center to set up the electronic vote and setting the date is dependent on how fast the center can make the ballot.
According to Jeff Wright, Constitutional Committee chair for ASM, their committee requires assistance from the Division of Information Technology help center, and setting the date is contingent on resource availability.
“If the Student Election Commission as well as the Constitutional Commission don’t think they can get things up and running in time, that might affect the date as well,” Karns said.
Karns added it is up to the SEC and the Constitutional Committee to work together to come up with a date, but right now the date remains up in the air.
Wright said the date will most likely be sometime in mid-February because nothing has changed with regard to legislation.
Tondrowski added the student judiciary will set the date within the first week of school.
“They just need to get logistics worked out,” ASM Chair Brittany Wiegand said. “We were initially going to have it around Valentine’s Day, but I think it will be around the end of February.”
ASM member Chris Tiernan agreed with Wiegand, saying the final vote will take place sometime in February or March.
Wright said although exact dates have yet to be set, they will hopefully be confirmed soon.
If passed by a two-thirds majority vote, the new ASM Constitution would rework several items to ensure a more clear interpretation of its goals and will approve the election of an ASM president and vice president as well as an independent legislature, according to Student Service Finance Committee Chair Kurt Gosselin.
“We hope it increases efficiency of the workings of the student government and increases opportunities for participation for communication as the main stake hold for students on campus,” Gosselin said.
Gosselin added he’s confident about the outcome of the vote.
“Once the students see the proposal that we put out there they will recognize that this is a very important document, and we really look forward to seeing a large well-informed voter turnout.” Gosselin said.
“It’s going to take some campaigning to make sure people understand what the differences are and to clear up some misunderstandings,” Karns said. “If we put in the time and effort necessary, it will pass.”
