Associated Students of Madison filled three open student council positions Wednesday night and focused on how to deal with the Assembly passage of a bill that impacts student voting.
Legislative Affairs Committee Chair Carmen Gosey said students showed up to the Capitol twice Tuesday to protest a bill that got rid of the special registration deputy position. Gosey said it still passed and will most likely pass the Senate again with an Assembly added amendment, but students are not giving up.
UW students ‘black out’ Capitol in protest of online voting registration bill passed by Assembly
Gosey said the Legislative Affairs Committee has been working to increase voter education initiatives since it is going to be needed much more. The committee may potentially create a campaign dedicated to voter education, she said.
Chair Sally Rohrer of the University Affairs Committee said the committee is brainstorming how to deal with the fact that the bill’s passage also made advocacy for changing the Wiscard to meet voting ID requirements irrelevant.
Student government committee continues to advocate for Wiscard voter IDs
Rohrer said the group is reevaluating what course of action the committee will take going forward and which facet of student voting it plans to focus on in order to make voting for students more accessible.
Vanessa Studer was elected uncontested as the new vice chair for student council. Mark Wulf also ran unopposed for the recruitment and retention coordinator. After running against Jacqueline Warner, Nima Cheraghi was elected the new ASM press office director.
Wulf said he got a lot of experience communicating with people on campaigns first semester and working with student organizations.
“We are the voice of students on campus and we should do our best to assist and coordinate with student orgs on campus that are already making the effort to help out,” Wulf said
In addition, ASM passed a resolution calling for graduate student pay increases to match fee increases. The resolution states “the Associated Students of Madison opposes any fee increases, whether it be a segregated fee or otherwise, for graduate assistants that is not accompanied by an equivalent percent increase in graduate assistant pay.”
Chair Madison Lanning said ASM will continue to discuss graduate pay increases with the administration.
“No student or teacher on campus should be struggling to make ends meat on the salaries we offer,” Lanning said. “We are a world renowned university and we need to prioritize the wages of all positions on campus,including student wages.”
Student Council will meet again Wednesday, March 2.
