UW-Madison students can vote online for or against the Associated Students of Madison's new constitution Feb. 23-24.
Registered students can vote by logging on to a special website created by the UW Survey Center. Students will need to enter their student usernames and passwords before voting.
According to an ASM release, the voting process takes approximately 30 seconds.
ASM decided to re-write their constitution last May to address organizational problems in areas of communication, participation, effectiveness and efficiency.
The ASM Constitutional Committee held several informational sessions about the drafting process throughout the year. The group received over 400 comments on the constitution draft through the committee's 12 feedback sessions.
The ASM Student Council approved the draft in December 2008, which was the final step before sending the draft out for a student vote.
If passed, the constitution would create a student body president and a cabinet of directors to carry out duties in the realms of academic affairs, diversity and shared governance.
Students in feedback sessions said they were worried about ASM members becoming underinvolved because it would not be required to participate in grassroots committees.
However, ASM leaders said the constitution would create a Student Senate to give direction through policy directives, which would require more time commitment than current regulations recommend.
Several student groups on campus collaborated to launch a Vote No campaign.
Several members opposing the constitution claim grassroots organizations should take a larger precedence in ASM.
Promoting Awareness, Victim Empowerment, a registered student organization on campus, released a statement Feb. 20 stating their Vote No stance on the constitution.
According to the release, PAVE wants a constitution that represents the ""diversity of student voices and explicitly protects student and GSSF funded groups.""
Members from both sides met last week to debate the ASM constitution reforms. Constitutional Committee Chair Jeff Wright and Chynna Haas from the Working Class Student Union represented the ""Vote Yes"" and ""Vote No"" coalitions, respectively.
Dean of Students Lori Berquam said in a statement she takes no formal position on the ASM constitution, but that she encourages students to vote.
""Students demonstrated their commitment to our national community when voting in the recent presidential election—let's do the same for our campus government,"" she said in a statement.
For more information on the constitution, students can visit asm.wisc.edu.
