The election of sophomore Genevieve Carter as the 21st session chair of the Associated Students of Madison is characteristic of the grassroots committees in which she had her start with student government: full of passion and with the promise of yielding big results.
Assuming her gavel and place at the head of the table, Carter said she does not want to forget about the “roots” which she feels distinguish ASM and the University of Wisconsin-Madison from other institutions.
“That’s really where I feel the most passionately,” Carter said of her grassroots campaign efforts within ASM. “I really love doing that work.”
With the experience she brings as both a Student Council representative and chair of Nominations Board, Carter said she hopes to continue the work of the previous session with establishing ASM as an inclusive environment for students.
“I really want myself and ASM to be an accessible and safe space for every student on this campus,” Carter said. “I want students to feel comfortable to approach me, to approach anyone involved with ASM, with concerns they have or issues they want to work on.”
David Gardner, chair of the 20th ASM session, said he believes it was the priority placed on student outreach and involvement that played a key role in the success of the body.
“I would definitely say we were successful,” Gardner said. “I think we did more than we even thought we were capable of.”
Gardner said he focused his tenure not on political ideologies as past sessions have, but rather on how the body could benefit the UW-Madison students it is slated to represent.
Most notably, Gardner said Student Council distributed the most financial grants to registered student organizations through ASM’s Finance Committee and produced long-awaited revisions to eligibility criteria for student groups seeking funding.
Additionally, last session’s members eliminated the chief of staff position, which Gardner said was yet another politically-based role, and replaced it with a recruitment and retention chair that is aimed at promoting more campus involvement with decision-making conversations.
Though Gardner has passed the torch to Carter, he said his work with shared governance is not complete. He said he aims to continue his work fighting for students’ role in university decisions and presenting students not simply as kids, but as valuable assets to campus conversation.
“I won’t be in ASM, but I’ll be around it,” Gardner said, adding he hopes to contribute to conversation regarding Wisconsin’s biennial budget.
With Carter in the leadership position, Gardner said she brings a much needed surge of energy to ASM that students can rely on when looking for representation with their best interests at heart.
Aside from continued work on student advocacy, Carter said she will focus efforts on alleviating the financial burden currently set on students by vying for more state educational funding.
Those efforts will not be taken on individually, as Carter said she intends to take the student body with her every step of the way on her session-long journey as chair.
“I truly believe that the best work is going to come when we work collaboratively as a student body,” Carter said. “I really want that message to permeate through this session and, hopefully, into next sessions: In order to be successful, this university has to be collaborative.”
