While there is a clear sentiment on the Shared Governance Committee of the Associated Students of Madison against endorsing the NatUP 2010 project, election regulations prevented the committee from taking an official stance during their last meeting.
The Shared Governance Committee met March 25 to discuss points of interest that would solidify their position against the approaching referendum vote.
Melissa Hanley, Chair of the Shared Governance Committee, led the group discussion and made clear she did not hold the committee’s decision personally.
“As chair, I try to remain neutral when deciding what stance the group will take on an issue,” Hanley said. “So this decision does not reflect my personal feelings on the referendum.”
Hanley added the Shared Governance Committee took their position for multiple reasons. After hearing a presentation by the NatUp 2010 committee earlier this year, Shared Governance took interest in whether students were seeing every potential angle to the issue, and not just from the NatUp campaign.
The main concern was how big a role ASM was playing in educating University of Wisconsin students on potential elections around campus. The Shared Governance Committee found it did not approve of how students came to receive equal knowledge for these elections.
Hanley said there was a division of opinion within the committee on the NatUp 2010 referendum.
“There are two main sides — those who have problems with the creation of the proposal and those who have problems with the segregated fees that would come along with the proposal,” Hanley said.
However, the meeting of Shared Governance hit a snag and ended up not voting on their stance to the proposed NatUp 2010 referendum.
Hanley was alerted and referred to the ASM Election Rules implemented in spring 2010, and found that a vote on their chosen date may be judged as illegal and nullified.
The vote would have been in violation of Rule Eight of the election rules that states, “Candidates shall not use ASM resources in their campaigns without prior approval from the SEC or Student Judiciary.”
This new rule did not allow Shared Governance to vote on the issue, as they would have used paper resources from ASM not previously approved.
Shared Governance did receive a letter of discontent from Sheala Mullaney, a member of UW Recreational Sports, on the committee’s proposal.
Mullaney said the NatUp committee had also spoken to more than 10,000 students on the matter as well.
Hanley said she would not allow a vote to go through given the circumstances and the meeting was officially closed.
Hanley did leave unofficial discussion open to the adjourned on the NatUp resolution matter. The Shared Governance Committee decided it would still support its “No” vote on the referendum but issues were still being debated off of the official record.
The Shared Governance Committee spoke mostly on the issue of segregated fees to fund NatUp 2010 but could not legally debate issues that would be on the ballot until being approved by SEC or the Student Judiciary.
