Members of the University of Wisconsin’s student government made changes to internal positions and postponed a vote on legislation that would alter the way student government leaders interact with governance bodies for individual university colleges in their meeting Wednesday.
The Associated Students of Madison tackled issues including the process the press office director goes through in assuming the position, accessibility of school-specific student governments to the Student Council and an attempt to change the eligibility of ASM members to hold office.
After passage of new legislation, proposed by current ASM Press Office Director David Gardner, Student Council’s press office director will no longer be appointed by the Nominations Board in the beginning of the school year. Rather, Student Council will elect the director at the beginning of the session, which starts in the spring.
This allows the future director to plan for the next semester and to use the summer to organize, ASM Assistant Press Office Director Grace Bolt explained.
ASM Chair Andrew Bulovsky said he supported the legislation.
“It makes the press office director more accountable to Student Council,” Bulovsky said. “Which is always good.”
Along with changes to the press office position, Student Council considered legislation that would change the way school-specific student councils would interact with the larger university student government.
Student Council voted to take a final vote next Wednesday on legislation that would increase accessibility for school-specific governments.
While currently any student recognized by ASM may speak at Student Council, their speaking time is limited to three minutes.
The piece of legislation, if passed at Student Council’s next Wednesday meeting, would allow leadership from student governments specific to individual schools to have speaking rights on ASM. This would create a special membership status specific to these student leaders, without allowing them voting rights.
Rep. Richard Rolland and the Polygon Engineering Student Council headed the push for a change in accessibility.
Co-presidents of Polygon Olivia Rice and Alexander Schulz spoke on behalf of engineering students, seeking full speaking rights on the student body. Schulz said they hope to develop better communication with ASM.
“I think it is definitely a benefit, it expands opportunities for access,” Bulovsky said regarding the impact the legislation might have if passed. “It could lead to a little bit longer meetings…but that is a very small price to pay for the benefits that could come for expanding access and opportunities for feedback.”
While legislation regarding new speaking rights will be put to a final vote, Bulovsky said he expects its passage.
Rolland, addressing the eligibility of Student Council members, proposed another piece of legislation that would have changed the bylaws to put new restrictions on who could hold office based on how long representatives have been in a school and whether they switched schools during their time as a representative.
The legislation was ultimately defeated.
