The Associated Students of Madison will host a town-hall-style meeting April 15 in an attempt to elicit feedback from students about potential areas for ASM reform.
""It's a chance for students to realize that ASM is their student government and they need to be taking active roles as stakeholders,"" ASM Representative Chynna Haas said. She introduced the idea, titled Disc(US)sion 2009, alongside ASM Vice Chair Hannah Karns at a news conference Tuesday.
The idea for the discussion stemmed from ASM's failed effort to amend the ASM constitution.
""It became apparent that the Constitutional Committee had been too closed and insulated during the process,"" Karns said. ""We'd like to learn from this experience and open the topic of reform to the entire campus.""
Jeff Wright, former chair of the Constitutional Committee, said the committee did the best it could in reaching out to students and worried about ASM's ability to include more students in the reform process.
""Those who are already active and in tune are the most likely to attend,"" he said. ""It's very hard to get the average student to attend anything ASM-related.""
In an effort to reach more students, Haas said ASM will focus specifically on contacting student group leaders about the discussion.
""They have the ability to get their volunteers and members to participate,"" she said.
According to Karns, the main difference between Disc(US)sion 2009 and ASM's previous campus forums is the town-hall style. Karns said ASM will not present any of its own ideas for reform at the forum.
""The basic premise is that we don't have any objectives or ideas that we're going to throw out there as facilitators and say, ‘Does that meet your needs?' It's really, ‘What can we do to meet your needs that you can identify?'"" Karns said.
ASM representatives will synthesize feedback from the discussion and charge the next session of ASM with implementing the ideas.
""We should really make it clear that the people who are reaching out to these groups now may not be around come next May,"" Wright said. ""It's important to start a discussion but not make any promises on the outcome of those discussions.""
Students can participate in Disc(US)sion 2009 from 6 to 8 p.m. April 15 in the Caucus Room of the Student Activity Center.
