The Associated Students of Madison, the official student governance body on campus, held their spring election March 10, 11 and 12. University of Wisconsin students voted for candidates to represent them to advocate on the campus, state and national level for concerns or issues regarding students, according to the ASM candidate website.
Students voted for candidates across the Colleges of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Engineering, Letters & Science, School of Business, Education, Human Ecology, Nursing and Pharmacy, Professional Students, Special Students, Graduate School and the Student Services Finance Committee, according to the website.
ASM announced preliminary election results March 13, marking the beginning of a new group of leaders who will address challenges and concerns within each winning candidate’s respective schools.
Lander Levers won a seat on the Student Services Finance Committee with 626 votes and the College of Letters & Science representatives race with 702 votes. Levers’ campaign emphasized improving campus life for students by advocating for affordable housing to address rising rent prices, he said.
“The university … to keep up with the Big 10, all their schools have bonding authority, which they can use to make dorms out of the buildings, and that’s the kind of what I was hoping to push the state legislature to do — and now ASM,” Levers said.
Levers also aims to enhance technology access, like making the MyUW available as a mobile app and updating website user interfaces for better navigation, he said.
UW has many useful apps, like BadgerSAFE and Badger Athletics, Levers said. He believes there should be non-desktop version of MyUW for easier access to tools such as managing a Wiscard balance, viewing schedules and more, and said he will work to implement that.
“If we’re a top-10 university, we should have top-10 webpages,” Levers said. “I think the resources on there are very great to have on the phone.”
During his campaign, Levers also highlighted his value for inclusivity and open dialogue among Student Council representatives to ensure diverse perspectives, he said.
Levers said he cannot see every perspective, so he intends to gather and listen to student feedback.
“Having those voices [heard] is hugely important, especially when representing such a wide, diverse student body of, what, 50,000?” Levers said.
Jeeva Premkumar won representative for the College of Engineering with 118 votes. His campaign focused on enhancing campus life for students by improving academic support through internships, tutors and more resources, he said.
“What I plan to enhance is student support systems,” Premkumar said. “I think the best way to do this is, obviously, to work with university administrators and student organizations.”
He wants to focus on finding ways to make research and internship positions more accessible and less challenging to obtain, he said
He also wants to make sure student voices are heard. Premkumar highlighted how important it is to speak with students across UW to make sure he is catering to what they want or need to happen with the help of ASM.
A gathering similar to a town hall meeting would be a good way for peers to report concerns to him that they may be facing within the College of Engineering, Premkumar said.
“I want to create a sort of open feedback where students can just directly voice their concerns,” Premkumar said. “This could be through town hall meetings or student forums … I want to hear directly from them.”
A critical factor of the ASM election is student feedback, more specifically, voter turnout. Historically, voter turnout for ASM elections has been low, according to previous reporting by The Badger Herald.
Last year, only 3% of the student body voted in the election, Premkumar said.
“Even despite emails being sent out to people and to various students, several of my [engineering] peers weren’t even aware of the elections even taking place,” Premkumar said.
This year had a 50% increase in turnout with 6% of the student population voting in the ASM election, and while this is an increase, it is still a significantly low percentage, Premkumar said.
In an email statement to The Badger Herald, Ethan Jackowski, the winning representative for the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences with 193 votes, emphasized the importance of increasing voter turnout and strategies he believes could help.
“In a perfect world, I would hope for more advertising from the administration,” Jackowski said in the email statement. “I think emails from each school dean, and extending invitations to current ASM reps to attend department events to spread the word of elections and ASM would go a long way in addressing information gaps.”
Candidates said they were happy to learn the voting increased, but Jackowski said he strives to see a future turnout in the 10-15% range, which would be similar to UW’s peer universities, according to Jackowski.
The university has the resources to reach more students, but may need to rethink how they are using the resources, Levers said.
“If we can do something better, let’s do something better,” Levers said.
According to the ASM election results, representing the College of Agriculture are Ethan Jackowski and Gabo Ochoa Samoff.
Representing the School of Business are Brock Titus and Christopher Naber.
Representing the School of Education is Sidney McDuffie.
Representing the School of Engineering are Jeeva Premkumar, Tristan Engelmann and Yana Gupta. Representing the Graduate School are Laila McLaughlin, Srijan Pandey, Cherish Golden, Abdultawab Aderibigbe, Andrea Cristina Ruiz, Elizabeth Anderson and Carol Spoehr.
Representing the School of Human Ecology is Regan Staudt. Representing the College of Letters and Science are Lander Levers, Haia Al Zein, Landis Varughese, Amitabha Shatdal, Roman Fritz, Alisha Latham, Ishaan Srivastava, Brooks Barnum, Max Riccelli, Amelia Alvarez, Jonathan Tostrud and Bobby Gronert. Representing the School of Nursing and Pharmacy is Ashley Hagen.
Representing the Professional Students are Jianda Ni and Andrew Hagmeier. Representing the Special Students are Taran Schlichtmann and Joe Giron. Representing the Student Services Finance Committee are Lander Levers, Gabo Ochoa Samoff, Bobby Gronert, Amitabha Shatdal and Brock Titus.