When compared to student governments of previous years, Associated Students of Madison Chair Jessica Miller says the current eighth session council of ASM has been \incredibly"" quiet in terms of debate in meetings.
""There hasn't been a lot of legislation even introduced, and when it is, there tends to be minimal debate,"" Miller said.
While it is difficult to predict exactly how the next class will operate, several factors, including last week's election of a divided council, indicate that the next incarnation may be more vocal and argumentative.
The current council contrasts with last year's, a session renowned by some for its accomplishments but whose meetings were called a ""circus,"" characterized by public drunkenness, heated, vociferous arguments and members occasionally breaking into tears.
Since ASM is not a political body in the traditional sense and representatives take a variety of stances on a variety of issues, identifying the political leanings of ASM as a whole is far from an exact science. Vice Chair Carl Camacho said the current session of ASM is split ""half and half"" ideologically, while representative Steven Weiss said it is divided ""9-20"" in favor of the liberal perspective. Most indicators show that next year's ASM will be slightly more conservative than the current session.
Weiss, who won re-election under the more conservative Badger Party ticket, said moderates to conservatives gained five seats in the recent elections.
While this alone does not guarantee that the ninth session will feature more debate than the eighth, Weiss said he believes conservatives on the current ASM council were too intimidated by being in the minority or too accustomed to being voted down that they raised few extended objections to suggested legislation.
The ultimate cause of ASM being argumentative or vociferous depends on individual member's aptitudes for argument or vociferation, according to several council members, including Miller.
While no one can know every newly-elected representative's inclination towards argument, having members of both parties accusing their opponents of campaign offenses and the deriding statements made by representatives towards those of contrasting ideologies suggest that representatives of next year's ASM will be more prone to argument.
Student organization funding, budgets for which are decided upon in fall by ASM's Student Services Finance Committee, will likely again be a source for debate.
Camacho, who was re-elected under the more liberal Real Education Access Can Happen ticket, said the Badger Party was misguided in making cuts in segregated fees, which go towards student organization funding, a cornerstone of their platform.
""[Conservatives] are going into ASM just to cut seg fees-not to take care of the organization,"" he said. ""If people look at budgets based on the political ideologies, they're breaking the bylaws of ASM ... and the U.S. Supreme Court decision.""
While Weiss said he does not plan on slashing budgets across the board, he nonetheless expects conflicts with some of the more liberal members on ASM.
""A lot of liberals on this council think that the conservatives are out to destroy it, and a lot of us are actually out to help it ... become more what it should be,"" he said. ""I think it's not what it should be because right now [ASM] doesn't represent everybody.\
