After being selected by the Nominations Board, two chairs of student council who had been removed from their seats resumed their positions Wednesday.
Nominations Board Chair Niko Magallon and Associated Students of Madison Vice Chair Beth Huang were removed from their positions in September after the Student Judiciary ruled they failed to complete required service hours on time.
Nominations Board member Zach DeQuattro said the committee decided to nominate Huang and Magallon nearly unanimously after almost four hours of deliberation.
“These are great candidates, and with all due respect, it was not an easy decision,” DeQuattro said. “I think it’s important to fill this council so we can move forward in order to make any decision.”
Some opponents of returning the members to council said they resisted appointing Magallon and Huang because of their previous interactions with ASM.
“It reflects poorly on ASM in general that one coequal body removes them and then the other puts them back,” ASM Representative Andrew Bulovsky said.
ASM Representative Olivia Wick-Bander said the board appointed Huang and Magallon because of their background in ASM.
“I picked previous people who have had experience with ASM because we are in the middle of a session,” Wick-Bander said. “I decided that I could not compromise my choice in the best candidates because of the message it was sending.”
Also at the meeting, ASM Chair Allie Gardner read a letter from members of a multicultural student group saying they felt harassed by the UW Police Department.
The Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan (MEChA), a student organization focused on educating UW-Madison about Chicano/a and Mexicano/a culture, cited two incidents where they felt they were victims of racial profiling and intimidation by UWPD.
Gardner said she supported MEChA and appreciated communication between MEChA, UWPD and the administration.
“It is my belief that no student should feel unsafe, out of place or at fault due to UWPD presence at the office or space of their student organization,” Gardner said. “I think that when you’re looking at a student organization that serves a marginalized demographic and students on campus, you can’t discount it.”
While ASM’s internal budget was on the agenda for Wednesday’s meeting, the council decided to delay making a final decision to allow further discussion.
