The Associated Students of Madison voted to put UW-Madison membership in a national student advocacy organization on the spring election ballots in a meeting Wednesday.
The United States Student Association is a national student organization that advocates for student issues nationwide, including the Pell Grant.
The Student Services Finance Committee originally defunded membership to USSA when it approved the ASM internal budget.
ASM Shared Governance Chair Beth Huang said she strongly urged council to change the decision and pass membership because USSA is “an incredibly powerful organization.”
“This is not some special interest group that we would like to fund,” Huang said, “it’s a group that tries to get grants to 150,000 students.”
Rep. Cale Plamann said he would not support membership without a student vote and suggested the membership be placed on the spring election ballot.
“My real question is why we’re afraid of democracy,” Plamann said. “I just think with something like this where we’re kind of taking a little bit of a political stance that can stray outside of our charge of shared governance and higher education rights, I want the students to have a say.”
A special meeting of ASM representatives will have to vote on the USSA membership referendum in the coming weeks before it is officially on the ballot. If passed, it will require the approval of 50 percent of students who vote in the spring elections.
Also at the meeting, council voted to approve the ASM internal budget, as well as budgets for SSFC, the Student Judiciary, the Student Activity Center and the General Student Services Fund, which provides funds to student groups.
At their next meeting, council will finalize a vote on the Campus Services Process, which would distribute contracts to student groups that would allow them to provide student services.
