The University of Wisconsin Associated Students of Madison Student Council met Wednesday for their final meeting of the year Wednesday night.
They discussed updated leadership position descriptions, the Student Sustainability Advisory Council and legislation to encourage UW’s administration to prioritize students’ mental health in future academic calendars, among other things.
The UW Women’s Cross Country and Track team and three other students made statements in support of improved mental health responses and resources.
Former attorney general to deliver keynote address for spring 2023 commencement
Chair AJ Butler called on UW to do more regarding students’ mental health.
“I realized that in a lot of ways, this university doesn’t care about students or do enough for students, specifically when it comes to mental health,” Butler said. “Students are dying — we’re talking about teenagers and in some cases, 20-year-olds — and the university doesn’t care enough to do enough because there’s no such thing as enough.”
The mental health legislation was created following two recent student deaths. It mentions canceling class during campus tragedies, connecting students with resources to help them graduate on their own time and providing UHS with more funding for mental health professionals.
Thirty-one percent of UW students had symptoms of depression, 26% had anxiety symptoms and 21% of students had non-suicidal self-inflicted injuries in 2018-2019, ASM Chair Ndemazea Fonkem said.
“Life is sacred, life is precious and lives cannot be replaced,” Fonkem said. “We are not just some seat that pays tuition that could be replaced by a transfer student.”
UW Special Student Stu Levitan described his experience finding mental health resources as a teen and said that it is very different now.
SEBA presents Sustainability and Social Impact Networking Night
“I can’t imagine what it would be like to be in a system where you’re dependent on a university to provide mental health services and you’re not getting them, repeatedly,” Levitan said.
Many other Student Council representatives mentioned their own experiences with mental health and UHS, stating that UHS and the university should do more. The legislation passed unanimously with amendments.
Before discussing the new mental health legislation, Student Council passed the updated leadership position descriptions unanimously.
The group also debated the well-roundedness of the Student Sustainability Advisory Council’s sustainability goals and the flaws of the Sustainability, Tracking, Assessment and Rating report being used.
Wisconsin is where Earth Day started, and now UW is ranked last out of our peers in terms of sustainability, Student Council member George Graham said.
The legislation was passed unanimously after discussion.
