The Associated Students of Madison Student Council appointed Michael Jackson as student co-chair of the recently created Ad Hoc Diversity Plan Committee Wednesday.
The ad hoc committee is in charge of researching and drafting the next campus Diversity Plan by April 1. The committee consists of 25 members, with equal representation for faculty, academic staff, classified staff, students and non-voting community members.
ASM Shared Governance Committee Chair Britt Moes said having a student co-chair allows for more student representation on the ad hoc committee.
“The Diversity Plan will apply to students and having a student as co-chair is a great way to reach out to students on campus,” Moes said.
Moes said Jackson is the best student to fill the position because he has the most experience and is underrepresented as one of only two graduate students on the ad hoc committee.
Also in the meeting, council representatives introduced a proposed bylaw change regarding the United Council of UW Students, a statewide group that lobbies for student issues such as state funding and increased financial aid.
Each student automatically pays $3 per semester to the Mandatory Refundable Fee that funds United Council. Students can request this money back if desired.
The current ASM bylaw requires a referendum on this financial support every other year.
With the policy change, a referendum would not be required biennially but may be called by a simple majority of the student government body or 10 percent of the student body.
ASM Student Council Rep. David Gardner spoke in favor of the bylaw change and said it would be a powerful tool to hold United Council accountable to using student’s money in a more productive way.
“It’s sad to see money wasted on referendums when it could be used for lobbying for lower tuition,” Gardner said.
Vice President of United Council Beth Huang said by passing the bylaw change, United Council representatives would not need to spend time on campus every two years advocating for students to vote in favor of supporting their group.
Huang said representatives would much rather use the time to lobby for a student-friendly state budget during the time they would normally spend gathering support for the referendum.
Council will vote on the bylaw change next week. If approved it will need to pass again the following week.
