Student Council Meeting: Feb. 6
Posted: 2019-02-06 20:39:16 Expiration: 2040-02-13 20:39:16
The Associated Students of Madison Student Council met on Wednesday, February 6 at 6:30 p.m. For reference, the agenda can be found here. Chancellor Blank spoke and answered questions at the meeting, touching on issues related to recent weather events, access and affordability, campus climate, the state budget, searches for both a University Health Services Executive Director and a Dean of Students, and mental health resources. Three new representatives were nominated by the Nominations Board, and were appointed by Student Council. The new representatives are Levi Redlin, Pranav Srivastava and Nate Jones. An Open Seat Assistant Director was also created and proposed to be added into the bylaws. The position was created because of an increase in demand at the Open Seat, the student food pantry and the difficulty in recruiting volunteers. Student Council suspended the rules to allow for the body to vote on the piece tonight. The legislation passed its first vote tonight and will be voted on for the second time next week. “Reserve Board Bylaw Modernization,” is another proposed bylaw change to grant more authority to the Reserve Board. Specifically, this would allow the Reserve Board to disperse reserve funds to lower financial stress for students, faculty and staff. Student Council suspended the rules to allow for the body to vote on the piece tonight. The legislation passed its first vote tonight and will be voted on for the second time next week. Another piece of legislation, the “Reserve Reduction and SAC Debt Repayment,” was introduced to enact the Reserve Board to pay off the Student Activity Center building debt through reserve funds. Currently, students pay $17.04 per semester for the building; thus, this piece of legislation would save student $136 over the next four years. The legislation was only introduced tonight and will be voted on next week. The “Student Priorities for the 2019-2021 WI State Budget” was brought up for its second vote. The legislation endorses fully funding the UW System, funding the tuition freeze and protecting allocable fees. Vice Chair Yogev Ben-Yitschak motioned to amend the legislation to keep with consistent language with other UW System schools. SSFC Chair Jeremy Swanson and Legislative Affairs Chair Laura Downer, both sponsors of the legislation, stated that keeping it specific with UW-Madison is more effective. The amendment failed with a vote of 3-6-0. At the last meeting, the budgets of the General Student Services Fund, the Student Judiciary, and the Student Activity Center Governing Board were not passed because quorum was not met and they will be reintroduced and voted on tonight. The GSSF budget, which allows organizations to provide services to campus, passed with a vote of 18-0-0 with no points of debate The Student Judiciary budget also passed with a vote of 18-0-0 with no points of debate. For the SACGB budget, Rep. Andrew Dobbins motioned to change the salaries of the SACGB members from $0 to $7,056 to properly compensate committee members for their work. Chair Swanson argued that there needs to be a line in who ASM compensates, stating that in comparison to other Big Ten universities, ASM pays a greater amount of students for their work. Since amendments require a two-thirds margin to be approved, the amendment failed with a vote of 7-5-5. The SACGB budget passed with a vote of 10-5. Student Council is scheduled to meet again on Wednesday, February 13 at 6:30 p.m. in the Student Activity Center Heading Room.
Associated Students of Madison
333 East Campus Mall, 4301 Student Activity Center, Madison, WI
Website: asm.wisc.edu Phone: 608/265-4ASM
E-mail: press@asm.wisc.edu
The legislation passed with a vote of 15-2-0.
-- Associated Students of Madison: Morgan Grunow