Sweet. The Associated Students of Madison elections have ended without too many glitches and many have emerged victorious. I consider myself lucky to be among the newly elected for the 15th session of ASM’s Student Council. I have reflected on my campaign strategies and revised my aspirations for the future of ASM, but one question continuously reemerges.

How do I ensure that, as one of the 33 representatives for the 40,000-plus University of Wisconsin students, I represent the diversity of interests present on campus while fighting for positive change on campus?

I can certainly start by reforming student council. Two issues in particular have plagued the productivity of student council members. The incredibly high turnover rate of representatives as well as the lack of accountability for members has contributed exponentially to slowing the productivity of ASM to a snail’s pace at times.

The makeup of the original 14th session looks quite different from its current composition. ASM lost one-third of its representatives — 11 members — this year.

Several student council members resigned due to academic obligations. Although it is somewhat frustrating, student council accepted these resignations, acknowledging these circumstances do arise.

While formal resignation was the respectful way to leave student council, others chose more disrespectful ways in which to depart. Some members — including Sergio Gallardo (College of Letters and Sciences), Jacqueline White (School of Education) and Brent Maddux (Grad student) — were removed due to a lack of attendance at student council meetings. ASM as an organization has to spend time and resources to replace these people who ran for student council to attend the very meetings they couldn’t be bothered to show up to.

I have a hard time understanding how this occurs. Is it really that hard to show up? Are these meetings just held too frequently?

Hardly.

Student council meetings take place every other week. Granted, they can run for five hours, but most of the time this is because debate is taking place over important issues such as operational and travel grants or ASM’s internal budget. I would much rather spend a little more time reviewing and passing budgets than carelessly striking a line item or grant that can ruin a student organization’s aspirations.

Alongside the apparently huge commitment of attending a student council meeting every two weeks, each student council member must sit on a committee — either a grassroots committee such as Academic Affairs or be appointed to a closed committee such as the Finance Committee. The meetings are staggered throughout the week, partially to allow student council representatives to find a committee meeting time that fits into their schedules. Here, once again, a weekly commitment of an hour appears to be too much for many student council members.

Furthermore, punishment for failing to comply with the requirements is weak, to say the least. Is the Madison student population even aware of the student council representatives who were elected but failed to do their job and thus were removed from their posts?

Probably not.

There are several changes within the ASM infrastructure that can attempt to combat these issues. One is having real information sessions for potential student council candidates. These workshops should not just provide tips for how to run a successful and legitimate campaign; candidates should know the extent of a student council member’s commitment. That way they can decide, before even running, whether or not ASM’s student council is right for them.

This would at least partially eliminate these high removal and resignation rates that have plagued the 14th session. The more educated potential candidates are, the better they can function as future student council representatives. I would hate to see UW students discouraged from running due to the extent of the commitment involved, but it must be emphasized that student council does not serve as a r?sum? builder. Student council requires effort, and if a representative fails to meet the requirements demanded of the position, he or she must be removed without ceremony.

As a newly elected student council representative, I expect to be held accountable for my actions by the UW student population, as should my fellow council members. If that means readily providing the public with the names of those who fell through on representing students at the table, then so be it. It is time for a change.

Hannah Karns ([email protected]) is a sophomore majoring in political science and international studies.