The Associated Students of Madison changed the language of a contradictory bylaw meeting Wednesday night.
ASM bylaws state that beneficiaries are only people who receive direct services, but also state that beneficiaries may also receive programming. Representative Tyler Junger, who proposed this clarification, said this is a contradiction.
Junger said while the first part of the definitions says beneficiaries cannot receive anything other than direct services, the second part says that beneficiaries also receive programming. A similar contradiction exists in the definition of ""recipient"" within ASM bylaws.
The clarification removes the words ""direct services"" from the definitions and replaces them with the word ""programming.""
Junger said this bylaw change would not change the way ASM makes their decisions with regard to funding.
""We thought that our bylaws say what they are going to say pending the passage of this legislation,"" Junger said. ""While we weren't doing exactly what was stated in our bylaws, we were extremely consistent in how we applied it.""
Also at the meeting, ASM Chair Brandon Williams and Student Services Finance Committee Chair Matt Manes proposed the formation of a committee of student to work on creating a legal advice center for students.
""This is the endorsement of the idea and the creation of a group of students who actually want to work on it,"" Williams said.
Williams also said other Big Ten schools have similar centers and have found them to be useful.
Representative Carl Fergus spoke against the endorsement, saying it would be pointless to create a committee, saying he would rather just have people who are interested in creating the center meet without formally naming a committee.
ASM will vote on the endorsement at their meeting next Wednesday.
