In its first meeting of the session, a branch of student government elected its new officers and some committee members with several elected representatives not participating in the meeting because of election violations committed in March.
During the first meeting of the 19th session of the Associated Students of Madison Student Council, members elected Rep. Andrew Bulovsky as the new chair, Rep. Maria Giannopoulos as the new vice chair and Rep. Marie Kumerow as the next secretary of the body.
As chair, Bulovsky said he wants to reach the average student because he said the previous session of ASM failed to do so. He also said he is ready to sacrifice his time and energy for the position.
“I want to reach the student who doesn’t even know what ASM stands for,” he said.
The main point of contention during the night centered on who could participate at the meeting after the Student Judiciary ruled last week that nine elected members of the BOOP election slate would be prohibited from voting or running for positions because of election violations committed on behalf of the slate.
In open forum, former ASM Chief of Staff David Gardner, a member of the slate, said he realized the need to accept SJ’s ruling and legitimacy but urged members of the body to motion to postpone the elections for leadership positions until the next meeting so that all representatives could have a say and run.
Gardner expressed his desire to run for vice chair of the committee, but said he also wanted the body to postpone the vote because not doing so would breed the kind of dividedness and toxic atmosphere that dominated the last session of ASM.
Rep. Mia Akers, who was elected to the diversity chair position, agreed with Gardner.
“I struggle with this because I feel that not by allowing the BOOP members to participate in leadership positions we’re doing a disservice to the people who elected them. … If we don’t vote to postpone, this we are making a partisan decision and essentially silencing an entire group,” she said.
Sarah Neibart, former Student Services Finance Committee chair and council representative for the 19th session, said she disagreed, and that she felt the top three leaders of Student Council should be those who follow the rules and postponing the vote would be detrimental to time-efficiency.
Ultimately, a motion to postpone the vote for chair, vice chair and secretary until the next meeting where all representatives would be present and sworn in failed.
The meeting also included several committee appointments. Student Council elected Rep. Sam Seering as the next Shared Governance Committee chair, Rep. Sean McNally as the Nominations Board chair, Akers as the Diversity Committee chair, Rep. Becca Buell to University Affairs Committee chair, Rep. Ronald Crandall to Rules Committee chair and Rep. Dan Statter to the Legislative Affairs committee chair position.
The body also nominated members to the Student Services Finance Committee, as well as the Finance Committee and the Nominations Board.
A change from the practice implemented last session, the members of the new session of Student Council also voted to hold meetings once every week on Wednesdays rather than the every-other-week structure used for much of the 18th session.
The next Student Council meeting will take place Friday at 3 p.m.
