A committee of student government put on a meeting Thursday night for prospective students interested in getting involved.

Associated Students of Madison’s Shared Governance committee, which heads the connection between students and faculty and academic staff at University of Wisconsin, held the meeting titled “Shared Governance Matchmaker Event,” to show what each different section of the committee does.

Students in attendance of the meeting who were interested in joining the Shared Governance Committee had the opportunity to spend time with each different section of the committee, and ask them what they do, who they interact with and what sorts of decisions their subcommittee makes for shared governance.

Claudia Goodsett, the committee’s director of internal affairs, said she feels shared governance is something that is not only necessary but also beneficial to everyone on campus because it gives students the right to directly be involved with the decision making process alongside the members of the faculty.

“Everything our committee does impacts everyone on campus, so it’s a good way to get people involved,” Goodsett said. “Students that have been involved in the committee can help those new to the committee with what they’ve already learned through their work [with shared governance].”

Sundar Sharma, the committee’s policy director, said there will always be some sort of conflict that arises between the students and the faculty, and shared governance is the committee that can work hard to solve the problem and bring each side into an agreement by working together.

Committee Chair Britt Moes said the main goal for the meeting was to inform people interested in joining Shared Governance what exactly it is that each different part of the committee does, as well as what the it does as a whole.

Moes said the biggest takeaway she gained from the event had to do with the interactions everyone had with one another.

“It was really nice to get to see everyone having conversations and seeing how active everyone was with one another and to see people discuss what they’re interested in was really rewarding,” Moes said.

Moes added while attendance by prospective students for the committee may not have been great, she feels the students who actually came have a very strong chance of joining the committee in the future.