A new proposal, if passed by the Associated Students of Madison, would allow first-year students to run for the freshman seats on student council regardless of their standing as a student.
According to the UW-Madison Office of the Registrar, a freshman is defined as a student with fewer than 24 credits. With the abundance of AP courses and other opportunities to earn college credit before attending college, many new students enter with sophomore standing.
""If a first-year student comes in with 25 credits, [he or she] can't run for student council until May,"" ASM Chair Tyler Junger said. ""In the current system they are deferred for a year.""
With four office seats available to freshman in ASM, Erik Paulson, an ASM representative, introduced a proposal defining the eligibility of students running. His proposal states these four seats should be available to first-year students regardless of the number of credits they have entering the university.
""A friend of mine, the SSFC chair, wanted to run for the student council but he had too many AP credits to do that,"" Junger said. ""So situations like that aren't going to happen anymore if this bylaw change does go through ... the benefit really is that it is more fair, right now it is not fair to those students who have a large number of AP credits from high school.""
According to the UW-Madison Office of the Registrar, a first year student is an undergraduate that has never previously attended a post-secondary institution regardless of academic level.
""It will be more inviting and it will bring more people … more people will be eligible to run in the fall so hopefully we will have fresher voices … potentially a more broad range of voices,"" Junger said.
Junger said the ASM council voted Saturday to approve the new rule, but because it is a bylaw change it also has to go through the next council meeting before any decision can be made.
