Next week, the current session of the Associated Students of Madison (ASM) concludes and newly elected student representatives will assume their respective positions. As this transition occurs, outgoing and incoming student government leaders should reflect upon the past year and the spring election results that perhaps followed from them.
More important than the particular individuals elected and the number of votes they received are the statistics for overall turnout in ASM elections. On their webpage, the Student Election Commission of ASM writes, “These are the people working on the student elections. They are determined to increase voter turn-out and make the elections something that the student body cares about. They have hired Santa Clause [sic] to keep track of who voted and who didn’t. All of those years of keeping track of naughty and nice children has [sic] made him the perfect PI, and he’s in his off-season right now so we got him for cheap.”
Apparently, 88.1 percent of students on campus should expect to receive coal in their stockings next Christmas, as ASM reported a dismal 11.9 percent turnout in the past spring elections.
To put this figure in perspective, roughly 60 percent of Iraqi citizens waited in lines and risked threats of terrorism to participate in their elections last January. Students with two minutes to spare can vote in ASM elections from the convenience of their computer.
In all fairness, only 17 percent of Madison residents voted in state and local elections held on April 5. Elections for local offices traditionally see low turnout, and nothing that ASM does can ever completely change that. However, incoming ASM representatives can and should note this low turnout and adjust their agenda accordingly.
All elected ASM representatives, even those not serving on Finance Committee or the Student Services Finance Committee (SSFC), will have some control over the allocation of segregated fees, which now total approximately $300 per semester on a full-time student’s tuition bill. Although many newly elected representatives have, at least relative to the present council, moderate or conservative viewpoints, they should not see the election as a mandate to funnel more money to organizations that match their ideology.
Instead, ASM representatives should work to protect the pockets of all students — including the many that did not vote. Opportunities exist to improve fiscal discipline among organizations all across the political spectrum. This past year, two SSFC representatives that have, on several occasions, set aside their political viewpoints and recognized this, including Barb Kiernoziak and Kevin Otten.
Besides spending student fee money, ASM representatives have often taken it upon themselves to lobby other government bodies, but often with their own agenda and not the best interests of the overall student body. For example, earlier this session, the Legislative Affairs Committee organized against the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights. Instead of considering the fact that Wisconsin’s tax burden has driven jobs for graduating students out of the state, Legislative Affairs blindly followed United Council in their opposition.
When appropriate lobbying opportunities arise, those involved with ASM must remember that they represent a diverse body of students and do not serve as the local echo chamber for United Council.
While it is bad enough that a few students involved with ASM use student government resources to push a narrow political agenda, it is even worse when others waste student council time drafting and discussing resolutions to make purely symbolic statements on state, national and international issues over which ASM has no control. In recent sessions, for example, ASM has passed resolutions on the PATRIOT Act and same-sex “marriage” — both issues completely outside its jurisdiction.
In one of their first meetings, representatives should adopt measures to prohibit such resolutions from receiving any consideration whatsoever by council during the next session.
By introducing a sense of humility and professionalism and by limiting their focus to student issues and fiscal responsibility, ASM could go a long way in building respect with students and the university administration. While newly elected ASM representatives will never eliminate apathy, they can still provide effective representation — something recent sessions have often failed to do.
Mark A. Baumgardner ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in electrical engineering.
