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Despite traditionally low turnout rates for student elections, the Associated Students of Madison will be holding elections Monday through Wednesday Oct. 19 to 21 for four freshman seats on Student Council and two seats on the Students Services Finance Committee.
Voter turnout among freshmen for Student Council has generally been about 6 to 8 percent, while the turnout for the student body vote for SSFC has been half that at 3 to 4 percent.
“I really hope that more people vote,” freshman candidate for Student Council Maxwell John Love said. “The percentages are so low, which is really sad. It’s an easy timeline and they have it online. People need to use their right.”
The candidates have been utilizing many different forms of personal advertisements as they campaign to get their name recognized among their peers. The most common are Facebook groups, face-to-face communication and posters.
“I have a Facebook group, I’ve been talking to a lot of students — especially about initiatives I’d like to work on,” freshman Student Council candidate Sam Peters said. “I’ve heard posters aren’t as effective, people forget your name. I’m trying to make a lasting impression, mainly face-to-face.”
Secretary Kurt Gosselin said most of the candidates have some form of leadership or experience they are bringing to the election. However, he was not sure if many of the candidates really knew what being elected would really entail.
“Coming into the election, I’m not sure if some of the candidates really know what serving on these committees really means,” Gosselin said. “But generally once they are elected, especially on SSFC, they get really involved and like it a lot.”
ASM’s legislative body, Student Council, is meant to serve as the official student voice for issues affecting University of Wisconsin students, whereas SSFC allocates funds to eligible student organizations during their budget hearings every week.
Freshman candidate Bryan Mette, with his slogan of “Berquam tested, Biddy approved,” said his experience comes from being an intern for a state representative, which gave him a good background in legislation. However, he added he values the experiences of other students more because of his ability to empathize with them because he is a student.
“I guess the key thing would be longevity on the committee and the willingness to be a part of it for a long time, whether or not they are looking for leadership opportunities,” SSFC Chair Brandon Williams said.
The candidates also specified some of the goals they are hoping to achieve if elected, according to the candidate matrix on the ASM website.
“Educating students in their first year means they can stay involved for the next three,” Peters said on the site. “I will do this by aggressively reaching out to freshmen and also updating my Facebook status, so that anybody can stay involved while exerting minimal effort.”
The fall SSFC elections were planned in spring 2009 by ASM to fill the vacant positions left by members who had resigned or graduated.
Click here to see the matrix with all the ASM candidates and their statements.
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Providing a link to the list of candidates would have been useful.
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Here is the candidate matrix from ASM’s Web site: https://asm.uwsc.wisc.edu/election/matrix/
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I am disappointed with the lack of public outreach for this election. There are always complaints of lower voter turnout, yet nothing is ever done to fix this. If we want to represent the students, it would be nice to get at least 10% of them to vote.
Regardless, I support Andrea Nichols (SSFC Write-in)as well as Sam Peters and Mario Ademaj for Council.
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Why do you support those candidates? What do they have to offer? Just curious. Don’t know how to vote.
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When the hell was this!? That pizza was probably cold anyway!
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Both Nichols and Ademaj are currently ASM interns. They have shown a strong understanding of how the organization works, which is strangely something a lot of newly elected people fail to understand.
Nichols specifically is involved with the S.A.C. Governing Board and has an understanding of space allocation and VPN. She interacts with the General Student Services Fund (GSSF) organizations in the S.A.C. that the SSFC work with. Because of her interaction with them, and her understanding of VPN, she is an excellent candidate. Further, she has spoken with me several times about criteria, budgets, non-allocables, and other aspects the SSFC manages throughout the year.
Both Peters and Ademaj for council would make excellent freshman reps. Both have been talking a lot with current council members to gain a scope of councils powers and tasks for the year. They show a strong dedication to serving their constituency, and given their was actually debate over holding office hours to make yourself available to constituents last council meeting, having two reps like Peters and Ademaj will help make ASM more accessible to every student on campus.