The Daily Cardinal Editorial Board believes these issues impact all students and should be paid close attention to over the coming summer months.
New constitution gives ASM new direction
Last year, the 17th session of the Associated Students of Madison made the iron-willed decision to defund UW-Madison’s popular grassroots organization, WISPIRG, as a viewpoint neutral response to the group’s failure in meeting eligibility requirements. This year, vengeful members of WISPIRG made the iron-willed, and in our opinion quite loud, decision to secure seats on the ASM and consequently mold the organization into an advocacy institution with an internal structure and mission peculiarly similar to WISPIRG itself.
This year, the 18th session of the ASM decided yet again to defund another popular student organization, the Multicultural Student Coalition, as a viewpoint neutral response to the organization’s failure to accurately fill out and turn in application materials. Classic. And as a brow-raising result, MCSC not only took great strides to place some members in student council seats this year, but the group has been so hot-headed and annoyingly persistent, the ASM has found itself trapped in gridlock between members for the majority of the year.
After close examination of these two happenstances, this board has come to a shocking conclusion: a trend is surfacing. A pattern is arising between agitated student organizations and the manipulation of the ASM’s composition and purpose—a trend that, as evidenced by council this year, will only result in a pathetic and intransigent 19th session.
That’s why we see merit in continuing the conversation over instituting a new ASM constitution. As we’ve said in previous editorials, ASM has been nothing but ineffectual and internally focused over the last year. And while we’re certainly sick of reading about their brawls over student organization financing, we believe it’s important the campus community read and discuss the benefits of a complete student government restructuring.
This year, the ASM Constitution Committee, a committee the Daily Cardinal Editorial Board played a significant role in, worked to spearhead an effort that rewrote the current ASM constitution. While the initiative failed to pass council this year, we strongly encourage students to keep the debate hot and spicy next fall. With greater student input comes greater potential for real, successful changes in student government that hopefully will ripple across campus for years to come.
As ASM keeps its vain eye on itself and obliviously falls into more creeping organizational funding feuds, the rest of the student population needs to remind council that, basically, the rest of the student population exists. Next year, we can only hope newsstands tout town halls and committee meetings centered around the advancement of ASM rather than read the same headlines we’ve been plagued with this year that only reveal to campus ASM’s internal demise.
Speak your voice and know your rights
Various policies targeting students were introduced at the city and state level this year. The “Nuisance Party” Ordinance, passed by the city council in February, aims to curb large house parties. Under the ordinance, a party is classified as a nuisance if it violates one of 17 criteria including excessive noise, underage drinking or being too crowded. If classified as a nuisance party, tenants may be fined and must attend meetings with their landlord and police. This ordinance may create tension between landlords and their tenants as landlords crack down harder on parties to avoid such measures.
A state bill, passed in March, allows landlords to show a property at any point during the lease, rather than during a designated viewing period, and to charge more than a month’s rent for a security deposit. Keep your bongs hidden. This means your landlord can come into your house without any prior notice, and can charge as much as they please for that window you broke on Halloween.
Also, if your landlord is caught for including any illegal provisions in your lease, you no longer have the right to terminate the lease. The only requirement is that they remove the provision without any consequences, meaning they have no real incentive not to try to rip you off. Students must keep a close eye on legislation this next year, and speak out to protect their rights, because apparently, they are on the chopping block.
War on human rights needs a hero
The “War on Women” is an inherently flawed phrase because it implies it is solely the job of females to address and combat the infringements on rights they have played witness to over the past year. A more appropriate phrase would be the War on Equality, the War on Reason or the War on Human Rights. Because of that, because these injustices affect not just women but all cultural inequalities, it is important we refuse to let this issue fall by the wayside.
This year, we have seen Gov. Scott Walker repeal pay equality legislation. A law limiting women’s access to abortion was put in place, moving Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin to stop providing abortion-inducing pills. State Sen. Mary Lazich, R-New Berlin, spearheaded an attempt to repeal Wisconsin’s Healthy Youth Act, a bill ensuring Wisconsin teens receive comprehensive sex education.
Each part of this story is unfortunate, but that it has all happened in such a short period of time is what is most horrifying. If momentum keeps going in this direction, this “war” on human rights could see even more fatalities than it already has. That cannot happen, and Wisconsinites need to make sure it does not.
Where o’ where is Wis. bipartisanship?
Over the past decade, political discourse has become less and less civil. From Congress to municipal governments, the debate has become increasingly partisan and more polarizing.
The climate has been especially bad in Wisconsin since Gov. Scott Walker pushed his controversial budget and bargaining legislation through the Republican-led legislature last year. Violent rhetoric, partisan lawsuits and shouts of “Shame!” have echoed through the state Capitol in Madison and in statehouses around the country.
Recall campaigns targeting the governor, lieutenant governor and over a dozen state senators have turned friends and neighbors into foes and split families along party lines.
On the national stage, groups like the tea party have refused to budge from their dogmatic, radical positions. The national Republican Party has been hijacked by wing nuts.
Attempts of bipartisanship and compromise have been met with punishment.
Wisconsin state Sen. Dale Schultz, R-Richland Center, who was the only Senate Republican to vote against the collective bargaining legislation, was the target of a recall campaign from members of his own party.
In Congress, moderate senators with track records of compromise like Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, and Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., have announced they will not seek re-election later this year.
Other established senators are facing primary challenges because of their refusal to be dictated to by conservative purists.
Sen. Dick Lugar, R-Ind., who has been in the Senate for 35 years, lost his primary May 8 to a more radical Republican. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who joined the Senate the same year as Lugar, is under a similar primary threat.
Politicians like Schultz, Snowe and Lugar are good for our government and allow it to effectively serve the people. Voters should be electing more like them to office, instead of purging them.
Wisconsin politics needs to get back to its roots. Compromise and camaraderie was once common, even across party lines. This board wants to see a resurgence of Wisconsin bipartisanship in the coming months.
Outside money needs to stay outside
One of the most important consequences of Gov. Scott Walker's push to limit collective bargaining for public-sector workers has been Wisconsin's new role on the national political stage, the result of which has been a massive influx of political contributions from beyond our borders.
Whether it's from Americans for Prosperity or the AFL-CIO, the money that has flowed into Wisconsin over the past year has contributed to a heated political climate. With a recall fight well underway, and national groups on the right and left poised to fill campaign coffers of both candidates, there are no signs of tempers cooling.
We as Wisconsinites have to remember that our state became a piece on the national chessboard last year. Watch where campaign money comes from—and make sure our representatives are our own, and not just there because a donor somewhere else decided they should be.
