The Associated Students of Madison wrapped up a trying year Wednesday night at the final meeting of the 12th session of ASM Student Council.

Despite select trials and tribulations of this academic year, members of Student Council left the meeting with an optimistic outlook.

Nick Fox, who occupied the seat of chief justice in the Student Judiciary this past year, noted conflicts with University of Wisconsin Roman Catholic Foundation budget cuts and ASM Spring election discrepancies as the main struggles of this year.

"We did have a few rocky points," Fox said. "But aside from those two major issues, I think everything else went well."

Fox added the SJ is looking into developing options for a new election process. He hopes this will result in a smoother voting process for the Wisconsin Union Facilities Improvement Plan and Living Wage referenda next fall and the ASM Student Council elections in the spring.

However, Fox said he does not see the UWRCF case fading any time soon, since it is an issue that has gained national recognition.

"That is probably a battle — if you will — that is going to go on for many years. Not just here, but across the country, and ultimately probably make its way back up to the Supreme Court for a ruling," Fox said.

According to Sol Grosskopf, a freshman representative of Student Council, ASM had a successful session overall this year, but said next year's Student Council will have a lot on their plate.

Grosskopf, who supported the Student Government movement in reaction to the ASM election controversy, said he also supports the formation of an ASM Reform Committee next year that would have the specific task of addressing policy and structural changes within ASM.

"There were a lot of problems that I believe could have been fixed with the Reform Committee, just to make the bylaws clearer for the student populace more transparent, more efficient," he noted.

Grosskopf said he is confident next year's Student Council will properly address noted problems within ASM because of all the controversy the body endured with this year's elections.

"They kind of got in through a system of botched elections, so they kind of see that reform needs to be at least looked at," Grosskopf said.