The Student Union Initiative and the living wage initiative both passed in last week's Associated Students of Madison elections, the ASM Student Judiciary announced Monday night.
Student segregated fees will be raised by $48 a semester until Spring 2009 and up to $96 per semester for the next 30 years to fund the renovation of Memorial Union and the reconstruction of Union South. Upon ASM's signing of the initiative, all students employed by the university must be paid a minimum of 110 percent the federal poverty line, currently $10.23 per hour.
The SUI passed with 64.9 percent of the vote and the living wage initiative passed with 58.7 percent.
""We are ecstatic that students voted positively and thought beyond their pocketbook,"" Wisconsin Union president and UW-Madison junior Shayna Hetzel said in a Wisconsin Union release.
Stephanie Krubsack, SUI volunteer coordinator and UW-Madison junior, said it is ""really great to see that students gave back on this pressing issue to help the university and themselves in turn.""
Krubsack said the success of the SUI is due in part to the Union's promotion and awareness efforts.
""We kind of re-vamped everything we made it an official organization,"" Krubsack said. ""We had a lot more marketing materials to get the word out.""
SUI Communications Manager and UW-Madison junior John Sinclair cited phone calls and mass e-mails as methods used immediately before the election to generate turnout.
The planning stage will now begin for union reform designs.
""Full speed ahead—we already have some of the committees in line for the planning phases,"" Student Union Communications Director Marc Kennedy said. ""Students will have the majority control in the union council.""
Ashok Kumar, Student Labor Action Coalition member and UW-Madison senior, said he is pleased the living wage initiative passed.
""The students have demanded three times that the living wage be passed and it's passed once again and I think that it's a testament to the ability of students to decide their own segregated fees,"" Kumar said. ""Hopefully university officials will respect that and respect that the living wage is passed.""
According to Student Elections Commission Chair and UW-Madison junior Leah Moe, 2,635 students voted in last week's election, generating a 6.6 percent student body turnout. That figure is up from the 3 percent turnout during the last election that was thrown out, but down from the record 22 percent turnout of last spring's elections.
""Honestly, I was a little disappointed,"" Moe said of voter turnout. ""I thought that we did a good job of marketing the election but it's ultimately up to the students to get out and vote.""
Moe said the elections commission is currently negotiating with businesses to create a custom online voting service and that she hopes online voting may be re-implemented in Spring 2007.
The freshman student council seat winners are Steve Lawrence, Bryon Eagon, Jenny Corbett and Supreet Shah. The 2007 Student Services Finance Committee seat winners are Jenna Wieden, Alexander Schmus and Tony Rodriguez. Schmus also won the 2008 SSFC seat.
The election results will become final on Oct. 30 barring an appeal.
