Well, I’m sure you all got an e-mail from our student government. I’m also sure you probably didn’t read it.

For those who don’t know: It’s time for people to step up the ledge and decide whether to hurl themselves into the oblivion that is the Associated Students of Madison.

While Student Services Finance Committee has a great deal of power and sway on campus, and our Shared Governance Committee could if they wanted to (especially because it’s not that hard to get involved on that end), the elected officials of Student Council are often a self-defeating bunch.

It’s time we ended that. Most of this happens because the vast majority of Student Council members have absolutely no idea what they’re getting into when the Chief Justice starts the next session in May.

So, allow me to give a primer of things you should hold yourself to if elected — by relying upon current SC members themselves for examples and their perspectives.

Don’t be shy: Return e-mails and constituent requests.

If you’re going to run for a position as a Student Council Representative, you need to think of yourself as a public official. In a sit down interview, Engineering Rep. Grant Smith admitted he’s not the most extroverted individual, and so he gets a bit nervous when meeting total strangers to talk about these issues. But he does hold office hours. And he did agree to a sit down interview. Unfortunately, a few people — Rep. Eric Heywood from Law, Reps. Eric Hoyt, Theotis Sharpe, Katy Ziebell, Martenzie Johnson and Tyler Junger from L&S, Rep. Matt Tobelmann from the graduate school, Freshmen Reps. Mario Ademaj, Sam Peters and Jamie Bemis, Rep. Matt Beemsterboer from Business, Rep. Sheala Mullaney from Human Ecology/Nursing/Pharmacy — didn’t bother to even return my e-mails. Hard to argue you represent students when you can’t even respond to a simple e-mail request. (I’ll give Junger a bit of a break since he’s the chair and usually responds to my other questions.) Be willing to meet or answer questions. Hell, go out of your way to ask people if they have any concerns. Most of the time, people won’t even know you’re representing them until you ask.

Establish a concrete reason why you’re running — not because you want to get involved.

During the course of the semester, some reps develop a clear area of interest or set of projects they wish to tackle. Rep. Adam Johnson wanted to help fix Legislative Affairs. Rep. Jonah Zinn had his eyes set on issues of college affordability and ultimately settled on textbook issues. Rep. Erik Paulson had more irons in the fire than a blacksmith. While there is some room for those who need to move with the learning curve (such as freshman reps), others have no excuse. For instance, Rep. Rachel Bartz said her biggest contribution to SC was “electing our chair, who acts in our University’s best interests.” That’s not a contribution; it’s your job. If you have some student concern you want to bring with you or a general area of campus life to address, great. If you just want to sit on Council, you may want to reconsider.

Don’t sweat the small stuff — otherwise that’s all you’ll ever do.

“It’s hard for me to find fully tangible things that we’ve done this year as a student council that benefit the student body,” Rep. Max Love told me at the beginning of his interview. “Student Council has been really administrative this year, and that’s been a problem.” Unfortunately, Love then went on to tell the chair to ignore the bylaws when it comes to budget deadlines, end a Student Council meeting by walking out due to agenda confusion and oppose an internal budget based on a last minute addition he actually thought was a good idea. If you want to fight a slew of insignificant battles, you’re welcome to do so. It’s not limited to Love — at last night’s meeting, Junger decided to take on Student Judiciary over a reapportionment that moved one seat on the grounds that SC should be able to decide it instead. These are the reasons SC doesn’t work: They work on internal items and, even then, don’t always know when to make an issue a priority or leave it be. As Smith said, “Council just looks at bylaws and regulates those committees and makes sure things are working smoothly.” That’s what it does now, but that’s not what it HAS to do. Sure, there are grassroots committees for a reason. But there’s also a reason for Student Council. And it’s not simply to tweak rules. Because if it is, Council should be another committee, not a legislative body.

Learn Parliamentary Procedure.

Enough people have been railroaded in SC because they just don’t know the procedure. Get to know the basics so the chair doesn’t have to spend 10 minutes looking up what to do when someone raises an objection. And if you ARE the chair: Get to know Robert’s Rules front and back.

There is far more to deal with on SC, and half the people who want to influence ASM do so on other committees. But if you’re going to take the plunge, just remember one thing: There’s no time to dick around. So try, in every instance, to come prepared, having talked to other members and having read the legislation on the docket. Otherwise, SC will do what it’s done every year: Nothing.

Jason Smathers ([email protected]) is a first-year graduate student in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication.