Two weeks ago, the Associated Students of Madison Legislative Affairs Committee announced it would recommend a new student member to the Alcohol License Review Committee. Oh, yeah, and that boycott thing. That was over weeks ago, after City Council approved an additional citizen seat for the ALRC and Mayor Dave Cieslewicz promised to appoint a student to the new slot. The power to recommend a student for the position rests with ASM, which delegated that authority to Legislative Affairs.
Legislative Affairs has said it hopes to recommend Mark Woulf, currently a senior at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, for the citizen seat. Since Mr. Woulf has demonstrated engagement and interest in the nuances of alcohol policy and has experience as a technical adviser, this recommendation seems a natural next step. Though he will only be a student for the next year and a half, Mr. Woulf has said he plans to stay on the board for the full three years of the term.
Although Mr. Woulf may not be a student for the duration of his term, the board finds little fault with this. The objective of the position is to give students a more prominent voice in city politics, and Mr. Woulf will remain a faithful representative of his constituency regardless of whether he has a student ID. What is more important is he has assured us he will remain at his post for the duration of the term.
If appointed by Mr. Cieslewicz, Mr. Woulf will vacate his current position as technical adviser, which means Legislative Affairs will have the responsibility of assigning a new student to the position.
First off, they must interview for the position. Last year’s process consisted of five hours between submission of the final applications and e-mails announcing ASM’s decision. While there were several qualified candidates, ASM didn’t actually speak to any of them, including Mr. Woulf.
Instead, ASM relied heavily on the prerequisite of prior student government experience and rejected applicants on the grounds of not meeting this requirement. This should not be the approach Legislative Affairs takes toward the technical adviser appointment, as student government experience is neither a sufficient nor necessary condition for a viable ALRC non-voting member. If this is the ruling qualification for choosing the new student representative, we might end up with someone who can see Smirnoff country from the window, but knows nothing about alcohol policy, if you catch our drift.
This is not to say student government experience is not helpful; it certainly provides leadership skills useful for this type of position. What is more important, however, is an understanding or prior knowledge of alcohol policy, which does not necessitate a student council background.
The ideal candidate should therefore be knowledgeable on issues of alcohol policy as well as possess a vision for a more comprehensive downtown nightlife, and be prepared to advocate on behalf of Madison’s entire student population, which includes UW, Edgewood and MATC (hint: fear of public speaking may pose difficulties). If that package happens to be accompanied by experience in student governance, great; but if not, it should not be a deterrent.
