After UW-Madison’s student government concluded the spring semester with controversial legislation that angered members of the Jewish community and drew concern from others on campus, UW-Madison’s College Republicans chapter called for the disbandment of The Associated Students of Madison.
A student government disbandment hasn’t happened since 1993 when the Wisconsin Student Association—UW-Madison’s previous student governance group—dissolved.
Jake Lubenow, president of College Republicans, said his organization was frustrated with Student Council’s treatment of former Rep. Ariela Rivkin and other Jewish students as well as the group’s “lack of impartiality” on issues.
“We’re going to try to end Council and restart how we think about student government on our campus,” Lubenow said a week after releasing a statement condemning Student Council. “We’re going to do our best to make sure ASM’s power is taken away, make sure that they’re not allowed to abuse students on this campus anymore.”
Others say disbandment could impact student involvement with campus decision-making.
Former Shared Governance Chair Omer Arain said it isn’t clear how disbandment would affect ASM’s process of selecting leaders for more than 70 shared governance committees influencing campus decision-making. He also said it’s unclear if students could still select representatives for those committees.
“Disbanding ASM could damage this infrastructure of students within shared governance committees,” Arain said. “I think student input on both large and small issues related to campus would not be uplifted as potently as they are now.”
For ASM Chair Katrina Morrison, disbandment is “an extreme, unnecessary move that would leave student shared governance in shambles.”
Lubenow said the effort needed to convince students to support disbandment would be “incredible.” According to the ASM Constitution, two-thirds vote is required, provided at least ten percent of ASM members vote.
When former UW-Madison student Shira Diner, who helped draft the ASM Constitution in the fall of 1993, heard about College Republicans’ statement, she was “very sad.” Although she said she couldn’t comment on their motivating issue, Diner said disbandment was “a bad idea” and concerns with student government could be fixed within the system.
“No government is never the answer at any level as far as I’m concerned,” Diner said.
Although Lubenow said that disbandment is unlikely to happen, it has before.For over fifty years, WSA operated as the student government before officially disbanding in the summer of 1993. Opposing party viewpoints between the student Senate and co-presidents kept WSA from passing legislation and controversies like election fraud caused frustration on campus.
In the spring of 1992 the first vote to disband WSA failed. That spring, rumors circulated that the co-president election was fixed. Both co-presidents resigned, but were later reinstated when no evidence was found.
A majority voted to dissolve the group the following fall, but the resolution wasn’t binding because state law required a two-thirds vote instead of the majority, co-president Kathy Evans told The Journal Times.
“I think it will be interesting to watch the process they use to change the structure of student government,” Roger Howard, associate dean of students at the time, told the Journal Times after the vote. “This was a vote against the current structure, not against student government itself.”
Finally, in the spring of 1993, two members of the Kill WSA Party were elected co-presidents and the Senate had the two-thirds vote to dissolve.
UW-Madison had no student government until the following fall, when some students kickstarted the election process and students voted in favor of what would become ASM. After the vote, Diner said they gave students a voice by putting them on committees across campus.
Diner said the drafters intentionally made disbandment difficult to keep students from dismantling student government “on a whim.” They pushed for term limits, a large and diverse council with representatives from all UW-Madison schools and created opportunities for student involvement on committees outside of council.
“We wanted everyone to feel like whatever problems they had had with the last student government, that this one was going to be more responsive to student concerns and one that people felt more that it was actually working for them,” Diner said. “I think we were able to make a real difference in the lives of students.”
