Anyone who has ever picked up a copy of The Badger Herald or one of the university’s other fine student publications is probably aware of the Associated Students of Madison, which has been the topic of many a story, and therefore, one would assume, has great importance. Unfortunately, most of the stories regarding ASM tend to feature intense discussions and decisions on serious campus issues, so your average readers quickly skip over these stories so they can get to the page with comic strips featuring, among other things, talking bread.
As a result, campus awareness of this fundamental organization tends to get pushed to the back burner, and when we have to bring up back burners, you know there is a substantial problem. In my opinion, the solution to this problem starts with education. For this reason — in an effort to better the basic understanding of the organization and what it stands for — I have assembled a team of experts, who are here to help answer some of the most common questions students unfamiliar with the ASM have. And so, without further ado, we now give you these answers, in the ever-popular Q&A format:
Q: What does “ado” mean, and how, exactly, would one “further” it?
A: We meant questions about the ASM.
Q: Oh, right. Well, what does ASM stand for?
A: ASM stands for Associated Students of Madison.
Q: What does the ASM do?
A: ASM is the official government of the student body which, according to its website, is dedicated to “maintaining and improving the quality of education and student life on campus.” Many of the constituents who receive that education and live that life seem to think the organization is pretty much incompetent, while the rest of the constituents don’t care about it whatsoever. In other words, it is pretty much like any government.
Q: Sounds exciting! What do I have to do to be a part of it?
A: You already are! Believe it or not, every student at UW-Madison is a part of the ASM — you don’t even have to meet basic requirements such as knowing that it exists.
Q: As a proud member of the ASM, I have heard that there is some sort of, like, vote or something coming up here. What is the deal with that?
A: You can vote on a proposed change to the ASM Constitution next week, on Feb. 23-24. This proposed change is so vitally important to our campus that we expect a record voter turnout pushing 6, or possibly even 7 percent.
Q: What, exactly, are the differences between the proposed constitution and the current one?
A: Early rumors about the new constitution indicated the major difference regarded what color notebooks the committee members should write on during meetings, but it turns out the difference actually regards the development of a presidential system, which, coincidentally, would make no more of a difference in your life than what notebook color they decide to go with.
Q: I saw in Thursday’s edition of the Herald that the ASM approved a $40,000 budget for something called the “Alumni Student Board’s annual all-campus party.” My question is: Do you think students would rather have 40 grand put into buying 10,000 bags of Doritos for some party they don’t even want to go to, or into purchasing a new Lexus, which would then be given at random to one student on campus?
A: We would expect students would rather have the money put toward a third, more appropriate option. Unless, of course, that proposed lottery was open only to opinion writers in student newspapers, in which case we would recommend the Lexus route, although for $40,000 you could probably only buy the steering wheel.
Well that is it for our rapid-fire Q&A session. I hope you have learned a lot about ASM, and maybe next time you see a news item concerning it, you won’t be intimidated. Maybe next time, you will stop, and with deep interest read through these stories, hoping to better understand ASM, and what can be done to have it better represent you. And afterward maybe you could explain it to me, since I’ll be reading the comics.
Todd Jasperson ([email protected]) is a junior majoring in mathematics.
