The Associated Students of Madison released the preliminary results of their 2022 election Wednesday night.
In addition to electing 33 student council representatives and three Student Services Finance Committee representatives, students also voted to pass a referendum raising the student worker minimum wage to $15.
Six percent of the student body, about 2,865 students, voted in this election — a decrease of 70 ballots from 2021.
UW System students lobby for action on key issues to Wisconsin legislators
University of Wisconsin student Steven Shi, who won his reelection to SSFC, said SSFC already had negotiated raising the student worker minimum wage to $12 beginning this summer.
“[The referendum allows ASM] to request all the employers from segregated fees — including the Union, the Rec Well, and UHS — to have a $12.50 minimum wage starting next July, and gradually raise it to $15 within years,” Shi said.
The SSFC manages UW’s segregated fees — charges students must pay each year for student services and facilities. Annually, the SSFC allocates nearly $51 million to student services.
Under Wisconsin law, students have the right to oversee the allocation and distribution of segregated feeds.
Ashley Cheung, a SSFC representative-elect, ran for SSFC after serving on AMS’s sustainability committee and seeing how difficult it was to practice activism without being able to adjust the budget.
The minimum wage referendum will make it easier to advocate, Cheung said.
“I really believe that the only way that we’re going to be able to actually participate in shared governance, and have the time and energy leftover to put into things like sustainability committee, shared governance, COVID policy and shaping the way that our community and our institution is run, is if we have our basic needs met,” Cheung said.
View the full results of the ASM election here.
