The University of Wisconsin-Madison is a proud university with a diverse array of accomplishments and awards. From our outstanding research initiatives to our top ranking in ""books, babes, and beer"" from Playboy, our prestige stands uncontested. Our faculty, staff and students all play an equally vital role in these achievements as we push forward year after year to better our university. But there is one thing that sets us, and the UW System as a whole, apart from the rest of the nation—our shared governance.
Wisconsin stands alone as the only state to guarantee shared governance to its public university students from Wisconsin's state statute 36.09(5). This law gives students the power to formulate and review policies pertaining to students, distribute student fees and elect our own representatives to participate in institutional governance. Over the years, students have used this system to participate in and voice their opinion on many aspects of the university.
Shared governance gives students opportunities to invest themselves in their education and develop essential leadership skills. It has created an open space for students, faculty and staff to solve critical problems facing this university and devise collective solutions.
From this shared governance structure, students are able to derive institutional power, which has yet to be harnessed to its fullest. Although students have had great ideas about issues like textbook costs and sustainability, students have had to ask faculty to create shared governance committees.
The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences skirted ASM when selecting students for a search and screen for a new dean while administration sidestepped ASM when forming a committee on university alcohol policy.
Students will not stand for this violation of their shared governance rights.
With the New Badger Partnership, our university will be granted more freedoms and flexibilities to allocate our resources and manage the university. With these new freedoms, students must ensure that shared governance is both preserved and properly implemented. The decisions made in the near future will affect our institution for many years to come and we, as students, need our input to be heard and institutionally respected.
We need to elect students whose top priority is shared governance. As new opportunities arise, we need leaders who will fight for student representation. We need to engage in shared governance, because representation means nothing if our seat is left empty. This is the time for students to shape our education and the university's. Let's do it right. Share the governance.
— Beth Huang
Kyle Vandenlangenberg
Allie Gardner
