The Associated Students of Madison Student Council passed a bylaw Wednesday that would more clearly establish the role of its recently established press office.

Student Council had already approved a bylaw last May that created the ASM Press Office, formerly known as the Campus Relations Committee. According to ASM Chair Brittany Wiegand, however, the old bylaw contained no clear job descriptions or goals, which made it hard for ASM to delegate what exactly the press office should be doing.

Wiegand said ASM had already hired two people for the press office jobs last spring but now that the new bylaw is passed, they are opening the positions back up to anyone who wants to apply.

“We found out we did it all backwards before,” Wiegand said. “The positions now are going to provide more accountability and, hopefully, better public relations.”

As described in the bylaw, the Press Office will have three University of Wisconsin students as paid staff who will handle all ASM media relations, including press releases, website maintenance and press conferences.

The salaries for the press office staff will be mostly funded from unused stipends from ASM’s internal budget.

In addition to the press office bylaw, the Student Council approved redesigning ASM’s logo. The current logo is a picture of a chain breaking, and many SC members expressed dissatisfaction with the image it portrays.

Student Services Finance Committee Chair Kurt Gosselin said ASM needs a new look because it has failed in the eyes of many students. Gosselin said a new logo will help get ASM out of the “cesspool of negativity,” he sees them in.

Chris Skaros, another member of the council, agreed with Gosselin and added ASM’s logo of chains is not the right look for UW’s student government.

“I think this is the perfect opportunity for ASM to re-brand itself as an organization, especially with all the other changes we’re going through,” Skaros said.

According to the resolution, the new logo will be released at the Student Activity Center party in January.

SC also voted to approve a new bylaw that would outline procedures needed for SC to hold a special election.

Wiegand said previous ASM bylaws allowed for special elections, but they failed to provide provisions for procedures. According to Wiegand, SC passed the new bylaw for an election it will be holding in February to create a new constitution.

“It’s going to be a whole overhaul,” Wiegand said.

Additionally, UW student Kevin Ott was appointed as the new legislative affairs chair for SC, a position that has not been filled since last May.

Ott said he wants to focus on more local issues regarding Dane County, but more specifically Madison. He said several city districts are composed almost entirely of students, so part of his future plans are to mobilize more students to lobby legislators and get their voices heard.

“Even if you go home in the summer, you’re living here eight, nine months a year,” Ott said. “You should have a say in what happens in your home.”