Associated Students of Madison’s Legislative Affairs committee held its last meeting of the year Monday, reviewing the past session and planning for efforts to increase participation in next year’s sessions.
The committee’s meeting was primarily geared toward changes that can be implemented by next year’s Legislative Affairs members and potential ways to increase their presence at the state and city levels of government.
At the state level, the committee emphasized improving their relationships with legislators.
Legislative Affairs Chair Hannah Somers stressed the importance of lobbying within the committee and improving events that encourage students to get involved, such as Lobby Day.
Early last month, students gathered at the Capitol in an effort to get legislators to communicate more with the University of Wisconsin System and get involved with communication initiatives.
“This year’s turnout could have been a lot better,” said Legislative Affairs member Meghan Wagner. “If this is going happen again, we need more people.”
Somers said in the future, instead of having several issues that students could lobby, Lobby Day could focus on one basic issue that is easily relatable, such as student debt. This would get more students interested and involved in the event, she said.
Lobbying efforts related to the biennial budget were also a topic of discussion among committee members.
ASM Chair Allie Gardner also joined the meeting to talk about her concerns with the rising student debt and urged members and students to attend an awareness event April 25 to mark the day when student loans are projected to reach $1 trillion.
“Students don’t usually talk about debt,” Gardner said. “It just accumulates while we’re in school. At $1 trillion, student debt will have surpassed credit card debt. This is a big issue.”
The event is scheduled to happen on Library Mall on Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and is focused on getting students to take an interest in about and lobby for Congress to forgive student loans and interest rates.
Committee member Mudit Kackar said the issue of student debt is a deep, long-term problem that is not an issue with a quick fix.
Legislative Affairs member Morgan Roe also suggested that the committee start being more innovative with their lobbying efforts.
“What we did with Lobby Day was good, but they’ve heard it all before,” Roe said. “We need to start getting more creative.”
At the city level, the committee discussed the adjustments with the Mifflin Street Block Party and ways to improve student involvement in the planning of the event in the future.
Legislative Affairs member Devon Maier stressed the importance of beginning the planning of the event as soon as possible, saying it could have been an entirely different event had the committee had the information and started talking about it earlier.
Legislative Affairs Member Sam Seering said UW administrators refuse to discuss Mifflin, adding it is important that they face the issue and see students have opinions and are involved in this issue.
“Things have changed much more than we anticipated this year,” Somers said. “It seems like every week there is new information about what is changing.”
