University of Wisconsin-Madison
Since 1892 dailycardinal.com
Thursday, November 4, 2021
l
Aaron Rodgers, immunized??
+Almanac, page 7
To Becky, I never knew you +OPINION, page 5
ASM legislation, hope schools follow suit By Gretchen Blohm STAFF WRITER
The University of WisconsinMadison’s student governance body, the Associated Students of Madison (ASM), passed legislation aimed to strengthen shared governance across the state of Wisconsin last week. ASM passed the legislation through the Wisconsin State Statute with the goal of providing legal grounds for academic staff, faculty and students’ involvement in the decision-making process throughout the University of Wisconsin System, creating a new statewide body intended to pass legislation and organize systemwide campaigns and efforts. UW-Madison’s own student body uses its power within the university to determine the allocation of student fees, address concerns within the university community and is the voice of the student body through communication with faculty and administration. The organization is taking its role in the community a step further by passing this legislation, with the hope that all state schools will pass the same shared governance resolution, creating a larger platform for students to amplify their voices statewide. ASM is the fourth student government to support the initiative,
which was previously approved by student governments at UW-Eau Claire, UW-River Falls and UW-Stevens Point. “We’re going to come together and design a statewide organizing group,” said UW-Stevens Point President of Student Government Association Will Scheder. “The goal of this [legislation] is to create a body for feedback, organizing and to amplify the students’ voice across the state on issues that affect all of us, such as tuition fees [and] different bills passing through the assembly.” The new student governance body would pass legislation, organize joint UW System efforts and serve as the statewide shared governance body. This would replace the current UW System Student Presidential Council, which suffers from a lack of funding and representation, according to ASM. “Presidential Council only meets twice per school year; it has no organizing or lobbying capabilities and can’t really represent students,” said ASM Legislative Affairs Committee Chair Muralidharan (MGR) Govindarajan via email. “These are the major problems with the Presidential Council and won’t be something the new Shared Gov Org will have to deal with. It’ll be led by students, representing stu-
dents, and will have the funding necessary to lobby.” At an ASM meeting in September, student leaders said that the changes in wording made to the state statute in 2015 by Gov. Scott Walker weakened their powers within the shared governance system, inhibiting their voice. Now, with this passed legislation, the hope is that students will have primary responsibility for policies that concern student life and interests. “As the director of shared governance for the old Wisconsin Student Association during the heyday of 36.09(5) in the mid-1980s, I am thrilled to see this statewide initiative to restore the collective voice of students in the governance of the UW-System,” Student Council Representative and legislation sponsor Stu Levitan said in a Oct. 28 press release from ASM. Despite the success of the legislation’s passage at some System schools, leaders like Scheder remained concerned about the future of the legislation. “I don’t think it’s enough,” said Scheder. “We don’t have authority to do anything; it’s basically just a discussion forum, which is good for some things, but for doing the work of student’s governments, it’s really not.”
“The goal of this body is to replace that with an effective student government body, basically like ASM, but on a statewide level that will direct movements across the state and not just on a single campus,” continued Scheder. In a September interview with the The Daily Cardinal, ASM Chair Adrian Lampron commented on the body’s relationship with the
that with the changing circumstances, we’ll be able to have a better relationship again.” As other UW System schools consider passing the shared governance legislation, Govindarajan assumes that the student governance bodies will gain support from the System’s administration as well as state legislators sometime during the spring semester.
COURTESY OF KATE SCHEIDT
ASM passes statewide shared governance legislation hoping UW schools follow suit. UW-Madison administration, emphasizing their frustrations. “They made a lot of decisions behind closed doors and without input from shared governance bodies,” Lampron said. “I’m hopeful
“[The] UW System [administration] are aware of the fact that campuses are joining together and demanding action,” Govindarajan said. “We’re hoping to have this off by fall of 2022.”
Student voter turnout increased in 2020 presidential election By Alison Stecker STAFF WRITER
The University of WisconsinMadison saw its student-voter turnout for the 2020 presidential election rise to 72.8%, up from 65.4% in 2016. According to the Institute for Democracy & Higher Education (IDHE), UW-Madison’s voting rate was higher than the 66% rate of all other colleges. The 2020 NSLVE Campus Report revealed that out of 33,749
COURTESY OF LEAH VOSKUIL
UW-Madison voters turned out to polls.
eligible students at UW-Madison, 24,571 voted. Although the total of eligible voters decreased by 637 people from 2016 to 2020, voter registration and the number of UW-Madison students who voted increased. “These numbers show us that there is always work to be done in the future to further improve voting involvement,” said Shreya Bandyopadhyay, a Vote Everywhere Ambassador with the Morgridge Center for Public Service. BadgersVote is a campus-wide initiative that strives to educate UW-Madison’s students about voting and election participation. The initiative is a collaboration between the Morgridge Center, Associated Students of Madison and other campus organizations to support student voting efforts. They hosted registration drives, publicity campaigns and discussion panels around election day to increase student participation. According to Bandyopadhyay, the 2020 presidential candidates played a large part in increasing student voting turnout.
“I think in terms of people getting out to vote because of who was on the ballot was very important because it was a high[ly] partisan election. People felt passionately about who they were going to vote for and whether or not they would cast their ballot,” she said in an interview with The Daily Cardinal. The 2016 election ballot was just as divided, but Bandyopadhyay credits the difference in voter turnout to the university. “All the efforts by BadgersVote were really impactful, which we saw in the turnout results. We did a lot of things that were different from normal table efforts,” Bandyopadhyay said. “We used social media, online content, podcasts, zoom events and more different tactics to get people out to vote that they hadn’t seen before.” The use of social media helped generate a larger voter turnout in the 2020 elections due to many young voters being on their phones, Bandyopadhyay added. “People are looking for new avenues to get engaged, and
something low-effort like turning on a podcast. It’s a great way to engage new voters,” Bandyopadhyay said. UW-Madison also participated in the All In Campus Democracy Challenge last year in an effort to achieve full student-voter registration. The non-partisan program aims to advance democracy by encouraging citizens to vote, contact elected officials and take part in political organization. The initiative collaborated with more than 160 colleges and universities to normalize voting participation in elections and pushed for the acceptance of democratic involvement on campus. The university competed against other Big Ten institutions in the Big Ten Voting Challenge to mobilize civic engagement. Competition brings out the best in Big Ten students, and the presidents challenged their respective schools to bring the same level of intensity to the voting booth. “One of the most important values we teach at our universities is the importance of civic engagement. Voting in elections
gives our students a voice in the democratic process and in the decisions that affect local, state and national issues,” the 14 Big Ten presidents said in a letter. The university and its counterparts aim to push their students to stay informed and involved in nonpartisan democratic engagements. The increase of voter turnout in the 2020 election signals a future where the students of Madison embrace their roles as active citizens on campus and in society as a whole. Bandyopadhyay hopes to see even more voter turnout by the midterm elections. “I feel like kids are really excited about voting after they do it once. Everything is hard the first time, but students will feel that the second time will be easier,” Bandyopadhyay concluded. “All the campus efforts are more established, like institutionalizing the vote team. Now that the BadgersVote coalition existed another year, it’s another year of credibility and experience that will help students find trust in our institution.”
“…the great state University of Wisconsin should ever encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found.”