The Associated Students of Madison (ASM) Student Judiciary ruled that ASM representatives could pass a motion to re-elect their 33rd session chair by a simple majority, setting up a possible rematch at the Sept. 16 general meeting.
Three candidates ran for chair last April: professional student Michael Harry, then sophomore Lander Levers and then junior Haia Al Zein. Representatives voted 9-10-11 for Levers, Al Zein and Harry respectively in a preliminary voting round, then elected Al Zein by a 16-14 vote over Harry. The new order does not “name or limit which candidates would be eligible in any resulting election” on Sept. 16, the ASM Student Judiciary told The Daily Cardinal in an email statement.
The order aims to address whether “alleged procedural violations” by former ASM Chair Landis Varughese “wrongly influenced” the April election. In a petitioner’s brief to the Student Judiciary, Harry called the April 24 election procedure invalid because Varughese presided over the meeting instead of the student judiciary’s chief justice — a violation of ASM’s bylaw 3.03(2)(a), which does not provide a clear exception for the rule that a chief justice should preside over the first meeting of a new session, including chair election proceedings.
Varughese presided over the original April 24 election meeting in the absence of the Student Judiciary’s chief justice and vice chief justice, according to an ASM student judiciary order.
Harry said that Varughese allowed personal attacks, didn’t follow proper proceedings and displayed bias toward Al Zein, skewing the election process.
The ASM Chair is appointed by Student Council members and “acts as the official spokesperson of the ASM, presides over the ASM Student Council [and] facilitates meetings with the UW administration and leadership,” according to the ASM website. Jianda Ni, a former professional student representative, told the Cardinal the chair acts as a moderator similar to the Speaker of the House.
According to the judiciary order, a student judiciary member will preside over the Sept. 16 meeting instead of Chair Al Zein “until the matter is resolved,” though Al Zein may “speak and vote on matters as the remanded issue is being addressed.”
The student council must vote by a two-thirds majority to adopt the special order onto the agenda before deliberating the issue, according to the student judiciary’s email statement to The Cardinal. If the issue is deliberated, the student council may then choose by a simple majority whether to entertain a re-election process.
The judiciary mandated open forum speakers must identify as students, abide by time limits, register before speaking and submit any anonymous letters to the Vice Chief Justice before 3:00 p.m. Sept. 16 with proof of enrollment — a change from the April 24 meeting, when non-students were allowed to register for open forum although several of their statements were not read.
Open forum speakers are allowed to criticize ASM, its officers, UW-Madison or university administrators, make controversial statements and opinions and comment on advocacy matters. They are not allowed to make “true threats of violence” or “incitement to lawless action,” according to the judiciary order.
What happened at the original election?
Harry’s petitioner’s brief claimed Varughese “systematically disregarded the meeting rules” by allowing decorum violations, restarting votes, dropping Levers from consideration by a secret ballot vote and originally intending to endorse a candidate at the April 24 election.
The brief also claimed Varughese improperly allowed a personal attack by former student Genevieve Lambert, who acted as shared governance chair during the 32nd session, on candidate Lander Levers to continue.
The brief ultimately claimed Varughese’s actions undermined the voting process and influenced the final decision.
Typically, student council chair elections are held in the first meeting of a new ASM session along with elections for specific committees. Student council members may nominate themselves or other elected members on the council to serve as chair. In last year’s election, Varughese was the only nominee for chair.
Varughese originally entered his April 24 open forum speech as “endorsement!” in a Google Sheet, Harry, Ni and former student council member Elizabeth Anderson told The Cardinal. The text was removed prior to his speech, and Varughese instead offered reflections on his tenure.
Varughese declined the Cardinal’s request for an interview, citing ASM leadership transitions.
During the April 24 open forum, Lambert began to make statements critical of Harry and Levers, stating they lacked the “trust of their fellow student leaders” and “a willingness to play a supportive role in decentralized advocacy.”
She also made a critical statement about Levers’ representation of students during meetings with university leaders.
At this point, student council representative Idrees Ahmed interrupted the statement, stating it was a personal attack. Varughese said there was no precedent for applying points of order for personal attacks during an open forum and originally planned to let the speech proceed. After an objection, Varughese asked council members in favor of allowing Lambert’s speech to raise their placards.
Then, he restarted the vote, clarifying that a “yes vote” would instead be to overrule Lambert’s testimony and adding, “There’s been no precedent of us interrupting open forum speakers, at least in my time, regardless of the content of their speech.”
Thirteen members voted to stop the speech, and 10 voted for the speech to continue. Because less than a two-thirds majority voted to stop the speech, Varughese allowed Lambert’s speech to continue. Harry told the Cardinal the simple majority vote should have been enough to stop Lambert’s testimony from being read, and Varughese should not have restarted the original voting process.
Lambert continued, saying Levers took credit for other leaders’ work during his campaign and Harry did not demonstrate “competency in playing a supportive role as leader,” didn’t understand boundaries, made student front desk workers uncomfortable and wanted to use his chair position to centralize power.
Former ASM Vice Chair Ashley Hagen also submitted a written statement critical of Levers and Harry for allegedly promoting a misogynistic work environment, and former student Kamola Eshchanova made a statement critical of Al Zein’s “campus activism.” Al Zein sponsored a divestment bill last year along with four other ASM members which Levers voted for and Harry voted against.
Representatives voted by a 12-17 margin not to read testimony from former ASM administrative associate and December 2025 graduate Ambika Muralitharan.
Muralitharan said in her written testimony, which Lambert provided to the Cardinal, that she noticed “patterns of behavior that raise concerns about [Harry’s] ability to foster a comfortable and inclusive environment,” including that his interactions “made some members feel uncomfortable."
She also said Harry used ASM computers for “non-professional purposes.”
Harry told the Cardinal in May that he had never used the ASM office computers, did not recognize Muralitharan’s name on the sheet and did not ever recall speaking with her in person.
Muralitharan was on the student election commission when Harry brought a case before the student judiciary against the commission in 2025, claiming an opponent who never officially declared his candidacy should not be considered as a student council representative. The student judiciary ordered that Harry become the professional student representative.
Harry’s petitioner’s brief also said Levers “relayed a threat” from Al Zein made on April 15 that if Levers and Harry did not drop out of the race, anonymous letters would be introduced against them in the April 24 open forum.
In an email to the Cardinal, Al Zein denied issuing threats to Levers about anonymous testimony.
After the initial voting round, which occurred by secret ballot due to a motion from council representative Elise Hendrickson, Varughese said he would “entertain a motion to drop the lowest vote total and then re-vote on the remaining two candidates.”
The motion passed, and Al Zein won the following round, also taken by secret ballot, by two votes.
Harry’s brief argued that Varughese’s suggestion to vote a second time was unprecedented, saying Robert’s Rules of Order call for successive rounds of voting until one candidate reaches a majority, rather than a runoff vote.
“My concern is how much this fault line could impair ASM's function [and] its effectiveness in shared governance,” Ni said. “All three of [the candidates] are going to sit through the 33rd session of ASM. They're not going to quit or anything, and they will have to work together regardless of who ends up being the chair.”
Sonia Bendre is the campus news editor for The Daily Cardinal. You can reach her at sonia.bendre@dailycardinal.com.
