The first of 10 information sessions to create a new student government constitution, organized by a group of students, drew a sparse crowd Wednesday night.
In last night’s town hall meeting, which was open to anyone interested in discussing the proposed restructuring of the student government, the Associated Students of Madison Constitutional Committee (ACC) presented its new ASM constitution to two attendees.
Sarah Neibart, a Greek representative on the committee and the Student Services Finance Committee Chair, said the new constitution aims to get rid of ASM deadlock and that now is the time for students to provide input and get involved.
“We have a document we think is pretty great and we spent hours of heated debate on it,” Neibart said. “Right now we want students to tell us what they want and what they want changed.”
The proposed constitution would create an executive branch with a president, vice president and cabinet of directors in addition to setting up a Senate and an appropriations branch with new funding streams.
Alex Brousseau, ACC Chair and The Badger Herald Editorial Board Chair, said the committee would ideally like to present a final constitution to Student Council before the spring ballots go out. She said ultimate implementation of the constitution would be gradual.
At last night’s meeting, Zachary DeQuattro, an attendee and Graduate School representative on Student Council, said he felt the timeline the committee has set is too short for enough students to get involved.
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Student Government President Ron Crandall, who also sits on the Student Services Finance Committee and the ACC, said he felt the timeline was well thought out, and the committee is open to any feedback and opinions.
“Everything is up for debate – the point is to make a better ASM,” Crandall said.
Thom Duncan, who is also a Graduate School representative on Student Council, said he can see the need for change in Student Government, but he feels the process by which the committee created the constitution was too secretive.
Daily Cardinal Editorial Board member Matt Beaty said it would have been impossible to have every student on campus participate in the drafting of the initial constitution and that the current draft is meant to be open to changes.
Neibart said the committee intends to get students involved and the point of the new constitution is to improve Student Government and its ability to represent students.
“This is not about us, and not about politicking,” Neibart said. “We’re trying to be as transparent as possible.”
In terms of outreach, the committee will hold nine more town hall meetings which all students are welcome to attend to ask questions and to provide any input, including amendments, to the constitution.
Brousseau added that in addition to an all-campus email to sent to students last night, the committee also has an informational website and a Twitter account, and will present to ASM Student Council next Wednesday.
The next information session is today from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. in room 3161 of the Student Activity Center.
