Over the course of the year, Associated Students of Madison members’ commitment to constructive and respectful debate has dropped by 17 percent, despite other improvements to the council, according to a recent survey.
After a survey revealed a hostile student council climate last semester, the survey for this semester suggests the council has improved for the most part.
ASM Student Council Chair Katrina Morrison initiated the survey to measure growth in council climate from the beginning to the end of the year. Morrison said this was particularly important after a 23rd session filled with controversy.
“I wanted to get a better picture of what we were going into the beginning of the year with as far as attitudes and beliefs student council members had [about each other] and how that changed by the end of the year,” Morrison said.
The survey revealed that after the spring session, council members trusted their fellow members more, felt they had more of a say in official ASM communication and could better communicate their role in council. However, members felt less committed to “participating in constructive and respectful debate.”
Rep. Yogev Ben-Yitschak said that it surprised him to see the decrease in that commitment, especially because the overall ASM climate improved. He guessed that maybe people felt more comfortable passionately disagreeing with others as the year progressed.
“They maybe felt more comfortable in the amount of freedom they had to argue things rather than always being professional,” Ben-Yitschak said.
Ben-Yitschak was also quick to point out that while the commitment to respectful debate went down, it is important to look at the survey results in context, saying that the session really did get better throughout the year.
Morrison also agrees that there was overall improvement but hopes to see even more improvement in the next session. Morrison suggested implementing more team bonding activities outside of the student council meeting space.
“By default, they’ll become more comfortable with one another, they’ll trust one another and I think they’ll continue to have a level of respect for one another,” Morrison said.
