Student government voted to have representatives’ freshman terms no longer count in their term-limits during a Wednesday night Student Council meeting. 

The Associated Students of Madison amended a bylaw that previously stated council representatives could only serve for a maximum of two years, regardless of their year in school.

The council proposed to change the bylaw to state that terms held by freshmen representatives would not count towards the two-year limit. 

Former chair and current council representative Tyler Junger said he would like to see the term “freshman” be replaced with “new student representative” in order to take into consideration transfer students or those who may get involved with ASM after their freshman year.

They also added both graduate and professional student representatives would be given a new two-year limit separate from any council experience as an undergraduate.  

Junger said he wanted the change to be specific enough where everyone is included but not too broad that it is overshot.

He also added he thinks the change is important so a representative is not able to come back to the University of Wisconsin for a second bachelor’s degree and be able to serve on council for two more years.

Vice Chair Adam Johnson added he was in favor of the amendment and would like to see it put into action.

“I have seen many good people leave ASM prematurely because they aren’t able to continue after the two years,” Johnson said. “We don’t want that to happen anymore.” 

The council unanimously approved the amendment to the bylaw.

During the meeting, Chair Brandon Williams updated the council on the latest from the Legal Services Center.

If established on the UW campus, the Legal Services Center would provide various forms of legal aid to students.

Williams said he has personally been working with Student Services Finance Committee Chair Matt Manes and the rest of SSFC to draw up plans for the center. 

He also said UW is one of only two Big Ten universities without a legal services center. The other school is Purdue, which he said does not have a very strong student government.

The council also voted to allocate $25,000 towards the All-Campus Party 2011, an alcohol and cost-free event on campus scheduled for the week of April 14.

ASM originally requested $28,021 to cover the expenses of the event. 

Finance Committee Chair Matt Beemsterboer said last year’s event grant was around $20,000, and that he could see that increased a bit to compensate for this year’s plans.  

Beemsterboer said with this in mind, $25,000 would be a fair and sufficient amount for the event, and the council unanimously agreed.

The Nominations Board also appointed two new members to the ASM student council.  

Mudit Kackar was appointed to the Student Council Engineering seat, and Ellen Leedle was appointed to the Letters and Science seat.

Nominations Board Chair Andrea Nichols spoke on behalf of both the new members and said they are both extremely qualified.

“After two and a half hours of interviews, we are really excited to welcome these two on board,” Nichols said.