The Associated Students of Madison presented concerns for UW-Madison's spring semester including tuition, costs of textbooks and course evaluations at its kickoff meeting Wednesday.
Tuition is rising at a pretty steady pace,"" said Chris Tiernan, a member of the ASM Academic Affairs Committee.
""As tuition is rising, the government isn't putting in as much money as we are. They are actually decreasing funds for the university. So we're ending up paying more and more,"" he said.
According to Tiernan, ASM members of the committee will be meeting with UW-Madison staff and faculty to get their opinions about the best way to address the tuition and funding crisis.
""In my political science department there were like three or four main professors that left,"" said Peter Snyder, member of the Academic Affairs committee. ""We can't have that.""
Members also discussed the textbook swap held earlier this semester. ASM is working with different committees on campus to make the swap a campus-wide event, said Tiernan.
""The purpose of [the textbook swap] is to allow students a spot to not only sell their books and get more money than they would at the bookstore but also for students to buy their books at a cheaper price,"" said Kara Marnell, an Academic Affairs committee member. ""It was so successful last semester.""
ASM is also working to update the course evaluation website. The current website has not been updated since 2006, according to Natalie Moore, a committee member.
""We need to get the administration to recognize the need that it is a student benefit,"" Snyder said. Since 2006, new professors at the university who are not included on the evaluation website.
""We're pretty much going to revamp the whole course evaluations program,"" Tiernan said.
