This semester is only the beginning for the Associated Students of Madison grassroots committees, promised Legislative Affairs Chair Laura Downer, Equity and Inclusion Agalia Ardyasa and Sustainability Chair Katie Piel.
Legislative Affairs: Advocating for students to make their mark on legislature
While spending some time studying abroad in Germany, Downer successfully earned her spot as chair. Returning to the states, she dedicated most of first semester to providing background information on how both the Madison and state governments work to the members of her committee.
The committee is dedicated to boosting student involvement in government, meaning they often contact legislators, work with organizations advocating for students and teach students what is included in their university fees.
“The personal goals that I have for my committee members is to give them opportunities and enough confidence and experience to be able to go and talk to their own legislators and talk about issues that affect them on campus in a way that their comfortable doing and well-informed,” Downer said.
Legislative Affairs committee spent months encouraging students to vote before last fall’s election. Going into the local elections this spring, members are continuing their advocacy throughout campus.
As Gov. Tony Evers took office in January, the biennial state budget for 2019-’21 crossed over into new hands. ASM included their own requests to fund the tuition freeze, increased support for research facilities and keep segregated fees mandatory.
Each budget season brings a new round of concerns that opt-out segregated fees will limit the funding available to University Health Services, campus recreation centers and bus passes.
“It probably won’t be included in Gov. Evers’ budget,” Downer said. “We have a divided government now; the chances of them throwing in something that would be so blatantly aimed at taking power away from students is pretty unlikely. But that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t continue to advocate around it.”
While UW-Madison is the flagship university of Wisconsin, in order to see changes throughout the UW System, the campuses must work together. Monthly, student government members across the 13 campuses meet and discuss the student climate and state legislature.
“It’s so much more powerful if you can sit down with legislators and say, ‘I have the support of the entire UW System on this,’” Downer said.
Equity and Inclusion: Moving towards a healthy, inclusive campus
On her first day on campus, Ardyasa asked her SOAR advisor if there was a place for her to pray. The advisors didn’t know where a reflection space was on campus, impacting her first impression of UW-Madison.
Knowing first impressions matter, Ardyasa joined ASM and quickly became invested in the Shared Governance committee. From there, she fell in love with the Equity and Inclusion Committee and became the chair at the end of last year.
Since the fall, she’s been working on engaging students and creating conversation with the committee, as well as ASM as a whole.
“Letting [students] know that we are ASM and we exist for you. We are here to help you,” Ardyasa said. “In Equity and Inclusion, that’s one stigma that we’re trying to delete completely. ASM is not a bunch of bougie people trying to make decisions for you. No, we are here to listen to you, and you can always be a part of us.”
Ardyasa’s concern as a freshman paved the way for her initiative to develop signage for all the reflection spaces currently provided throughout the campus. But first, the committee has been working on a comprehensive set of data on the reflection space locations.
The hope is the final product will be completed and available on the Multicultural Student Center website by May 2019 — before new freshman and transfer students arrive at SOAR.
The committee’s primary focus is on mental health services provided at UW-Madison. Last week, the Student Services Finance Committee unanimously voted down the UHS budget, noting that the number of counselors they were searching for “didn’t meet the needs” of the students. This concern is not lost on Ardyasa, a fierce advocate for creating inclusive mental health spaces for students.
“This is the year where we realize that we suck at mental health services in Madison,” Ardyasa said. “That’s why we’re here as ASM.”
However, Ardyasa acknowledged inclusivity is an uphill battle, but that is not stopping her from trying. Notably, the committee hosts weekly bubble tea events to create a dialogue between those apart of the committee and members of the Asian-American Student Union.
“Inclusive is our end goal. All these different small steps that we’re doing is getting [us] there, but you cannot always be inclusive by just doing one step closer to [get] the full inclusivity,” Ardyasa said.
Sustainability: Turning over a new leaf
Piel — who was a longtime member of the Sustainability committee before growing into her role as chair — is committed to finishing her term strong. Within the first few seconds of talking about sustainability concerns, a smile appears as she reflects on the “passionate” members of the committee.
Throughout the past two semesters, the committee has developed four goals: “meatless Mondays” in dining halls, terracycling, banning straws in dining halls and unions and improved off-campus recycling efforts. Piel noted that banning straws, although considered easier and short-term, has been hugely influential across campus unions and dining spaces.
“The straw campaign was most successful, just because it was so trendy and such an easy fix,” she said.
These efforts have not been the work of the sustainability committee alone, as Downer and Ardyasa have played supportive roles in making the proposals a collaboration of ASM members.
In a combined effort with Ardyasa, Piel hopes to provide inclusive meal options by introducing “meatless Mondays” that are within the limits of the meal plan introduced last year.
The second is working to promote off-campus recycling efforts, both from renter and landlords perspectives. This will ensure renters know how to recycle properly and landlords are providing proper instructions along with recycling bins. To develop a plan including city ordinances, Piel is working in tandem with Downer.
Although Piel is leading the committee, she has selected four members to helm the four goals. She now gets the opportunity to teach her members about how their campus works and how it fits within the sustainability spectrum of the UW System.
As it turns out, UW-Madison is “sorely behind” other institutions, especially among the Big Ten campuses, according to Piel. She also voiced her concern about the lack of collaboration that occurs among UW System schools.
“I think we’re really siloed on this campus — in terms of sustainability, there hasn’t been a ton of collaboration,” Piel said. “I think we’ve done a pretty good job in the last decade or so, and we’re continuing to move forward on equity and inclusion issues across those. But we still have a lot of work to do with sustainability.”
The grassroots committees are among ASM’s most popular for students to get involved in. And for Downer, Ardyasa and Piel, this is just the start of a successful semester at UW-Madison.
