The Associated Students of Madison, UW-Madison's student government, is charged by its constitution \to ensure the greatest participation by students"" in governance and policy-making.
But former ASM Chair Brittany Wiegand, who was involved with ASM sessions 12-15, from 2006 to 2009, said student detachment from ASM has been a problem for years that members only began to dig into this year.
ASM's lack of clout within the student body became most apparent in February, when the student body voted down a proposed new constitution that had passed unanimously through Student Council.
Following the failure of the constitution, ""outreach"" became a favorite buzzword. Representatives began efforts to become a more inclusive student government.
Students reject constitution
When the new constitution failed to pass the student body, representatives tried to determine why they lost student support.
Former representative Kurt Gosselin, who was on the constitutional committee, said though constitutional committee members were deeply invested in the process, the committee lacked the support it needed from the student council to inform students going into the vote.
""The constitution didn't fail on ideology,"" Gosselin said. ""It failed in the ground game.""
Former representative John Tackett, who was also on the constitutional committee, agreed that there was a lack of resources.
""We tried to pick out the techniques we could feasibly do with the manpower we had,"" Tackett said in an interview after the student vote. ""The problem was relying on students to be more interested or enthused about possible reform than they were.""
Another problem for ASM was the competing Vote No Coalition, which former ASM representative Chynna Haas helped organize. The coalition was comprised of 18 student organizations that helped convince students to vote against the constitution.
""Before the constitution vote, I ran all around the libraries,"" Haas said. ""It was that back-and-forth conversation that did it. I was there in person to take any questions that [students] had about it.""
Wiegand said ASM and student organizations should have been more willing to collaborate. She said some of the conflict over the constitution may have stemmed from divisive attitudes from ASM members and student leaders.
ASM attempts to collaborate with student organizations
After witnessing the power of student organizations in the constitution vote, representatives attempted to foster a more cooperative relationship with them at Disc(US)sion 2009. The April forum was set up like a town hall meeting, giving students the opportunity to provide feedback about ASM functions.
""ASM needs to be proactive in bringing groups to the table,"" Haas, who helped organize the forum, said. ""Right now [ASM] doesn't work with [organizations] through council; we work with them through funding … There's this adversarial relationship that emerges.""
Surveys sent out electronically from The Daily Cardinal to ASM representatives reflect a shift in attitude about committees' relationship with student organizations. Separate surveys were sent to the 15th and 16th session, and at least 14 representatives responded to each survey anonymously.
Fifteenth session council members collectively said it is more important ""to work on a grassroots committee"" than ""to involve student organizations in committee work."" Sixteenth session council members responded with the opposite.
Eighty-six percent of survey respondents from the 15th session and 63 percent of respondents from the 16th session spoke or plan to speak to student organizations about ASM at least once a week.
Average students lost in the shuffle
Student organizations comprise an attractive market for student council representatives. If representatives reach student organization leaders, they reach extensive listserves and audiences.
According to the National Survey of Student Engagement of over 6,000 UW-Madison freshmen and seniors in 2008, approximately one-fourth of students are not involved in a co-curricular activity. Many representatives said they are concerned about this section of students who are not reached by these efforts.
See tomorrow's issue to find out how representatives plan on reaching underrepresented students.
