The Associated Students of Madison Student Council heard legislation during its meeting Wednesday that would ultimately disband the University Affairs Committee and focus its grassroots efforts into the Shared Governance Committee.
UAC currently spearheads projects and campaigns that advocate for students on a university level, according to its website. Chair Sally Rohrer explained that the proposition to remove the committee has been brought to the table over the past few years.
Rohrer said although her committee would be taken out of ASM bylaws, all of its projects and responsibilities would be hybridized into the Shared Governance Committee, chaired by Jessica Franco-Morales.
Some of UAC’s most successful past campaigns have gone through the Shared Governance Committee, Rohrer said, and it was clear to both chairs that the two committees each “have something the other needs.”
“Jessica and I think that combining these two committees together could create a really efficient body to create change at the university level,” Rohrer said.
Franco-Morales added that shared governance is a part of everything student leaders on campus do, and her committee could benefit from the grassroots-oriented work done by UAC members.
In the past, the Shared Governance Committee had interns that drove grassroots campaigns within the committee, but that has not been the case in recent years, and Franco-Morales said it would be helpful to bring in those efforts from the UAC.
One of UAC’s current campaigns centers around textbook affordability, as well as affordability of non-textbook materials like iClickers. Franco-Morales said one subcommittee within Shared Governance works with the University Bookstore, which she said could provide a link for that specific campaign.
“It just makes sense that people that are working on very specific campaigns are connected with students who have leverage power on a committee across campus,” Franco-Morales explained. “It just makes sense to make that connection.”
The council will cast its first vote on this legislation at its meeting March 30.
