Student Victories Press Release

The following is an official SA press release, which I'm posting here to assist my readers.


University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee sees many Student Victories

MIWAUKEE, WI; October 18th, 2010: The students of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee have won many recent victories over mismanagement, poor planning, and policies deemed unfriendly to students. The Student Association is proud to proclaim its new initiatives, dedicated to advancing student empowerment, and opening the door to further progress and development for every student.
On September 26th, the Student Association Senate unanimously passed legislation advocating changes in library policy. The “Equal Borrowing Privileges Act,” called for the immediate equalization of circulation privileges amongst UWM students, specifically calling for undergraduates to be allowed to loan periodicals, magazines, and journals. In response to the legislation, the University’s Library Policy Committee will meet next month, and several members of the committee are expecting it to pass without complications. If it does, it can be implemented as soon as next semester.
After an initial delay, the Student Association Senate, during a meeting on October 10th, passed the “Campus Life Commitment Act,” which grants an extension to the Student Activity Office’s controversial new student org renewal process. With knowledge that student organizations are the lifeblood of our campus, the Student Association will continue to seek ways to best address and alleviate the concerns of the student body. The Senate also passed a resolution supporting advocacy for more state funding to the University, and the UW system.
During its Vote Work initiative, which ended last Wednesday, the Student Association, along with members of the United Council of UW Students registered a total of 909 new voters on campus. “I’m pleased at the number of voters we registered. We generated lots of knowledge about the election, as well as the issues that are important to us as students.” said Angela Lang, Vice President of the Student Association. “We look forward to November, and expect to see many students going to the polls confident and informed about their decision.”
After almost six months, and much confusion, a total of $1300 will be heading to the Haiti Relief fund within days. The Senate Oversight and Rules Committee will deliver a report during the next Senate meeting, outlying a new procedure for collecting donations, and handling money. With careful planning, the Student Association will ensure similar confusion does not occur again.
Within weeks, the Senate Finance Committee will begin meeting to assess funding procedures for next year. The committee is dedicated to ensuring that every student funded enterprise is both financially responsible, as well as financially viable.
On Tuesday, October 19th, Student Association President Travis Romero-Boeck will be holding a “fireside chat” in the Union Fireside Lounge at 4:00 pm. This will be an open forum for students to ask questions and give input on campus issues, including the beginning of the Search and Screen Committee to pick a new Chancellor, of which Romero-Boeck is a member.
The UWM Student Association is the student’s voice that seeks out new and innovative ways to prompt positive change on campus and in the community. The Student Association creates a trustworthy and transparent relationship with all of the student body. For more information on the Student Association please visit www.sa.uwm.edu or contact Alex Kostal at 414.229.4366.
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United Council Decision, Press Release Drama

With 699 votes, and 68% of the total, UWM students decided to once again become part of the United Council of UW Students. In a surprisingly quick transformation of opinion from last year, the referendum was held without any sign of a “Vote NO” campaign. Be it an organizational restructuring improvement, or the free legal aide UC offers to its member campuses, most everyone involved in student politics voiced enthusiasm for once again becoming a member.

I’m satisfied with the result, and seeing how the fee charged to each student for UC membership is so small, and refundable at that, I’m not really surprised the outcome happened the way it did. I look forward to a warm partnership in the future, a partnership I’ll experience this weekend when damn near the entire Student Association heads up to Eau Clair to attend a UC convention.

Keeping the positive train rolling, I have issued a press release, detailing the recent student victories of the last month or so. I will post it here, so that readers may take note. As Public Relations Director, I’m gearing up to start polling students weekly on the state of the Student Association, as well as the campus, and the community. I’m looking forward to getting some feedback to what we as student representatives can do better. As Mao Zedong said, “we must always strive to serve the people,” and I plan on serving the students of UW-Milwaukee for a long, long time.

Whilst spreading my press releases today, I noticed that someone had plastered several double sided sheets of paper over them on the third floor org wing of the Union. A stunt like this brings Senator Campbell to mind, since she has been the only legitimate voice of outcry on the press releases going public. Why a member of the Student Association (of which every student is a member) would object to the posting of a SA press release on student victories on common space baffles me. Along with that, it is also a violation of the new UPB bylaws on posting privileges. Nonetheless, I will continue to post my release, without regard to the laws of man or beast. (which I’m actually not violating in any way.)

I’ll most likely update later on this week or Monday, on the happenings at the UC conference, and of course the Senate meeting this Sunday.

-Red Menace, out

Finding time to blog amidst Midterms

Sitting down in my favorite blogging chair, I’m glad to give myself a bit of a break from the constant rush of a week I’ve been having. With all able-bodied men, women, and children of the SA having being mobilized for the United Council Vote Initiative which ended today, I was honestly too busy to even give a report on Sunday’s senate meeting. Rather than attempt to do so now, I’ll just suffice to say it was a bit of an expected, if not uneventful meeting. With the happy exception of a few new senators being appointed, and the first outing for the newly elected Freshmen, it was quite uneventful. All of the old business, including the “Campus Life Act” and my “Senate Accountability Act” was passed, so look out wayward senators, and prepare for a quick and unforgiving dose of myself and Senator Ludwig’s blend of fast acting and hard hitting accountability. (BAM)

Unfortunately, and despite our best efforts, the SA failed to reach our goal of 2000 new voters registered on campus. I expect we’ll end up somewhere between 800-900. This is actually quite good for the number of volunteers we were forced to work with, which ended up being somewhere around 5-10. I wish the Senate would have done a bit more, and I’ll take the next chance to remind them to become a bit more active, during the next meeting.

A student-wide email went out today, naming 25 members of the Chancellor Search and Screen Committee. The two student representatives are the SA President and Vice President. I don’t know what screwed up math equation the board of regents was using to proportion the number of seats for the committee, but how did a campus of 30,000 students end up with only 2 student representatives on the committee? Bullshit.

I believe it would be a good decision for the two student representatives to call an informal committee to meet with interested students about the type of questions they want asked during the sessions. I believe as student representatives, they have a duty to listen to the concerns of the student body. I’ll bring this up to them ASAP. (no pun intended)

Also, the Union is donating $1,300 to the SA, which in turn will donate the full amount to the Haiti Relief Fund. It’s pretty generous of the Union to do this, although it’s a shame the original money was never found. And Katie, the Union donating money doesn’t prove your innocence, nor does it prove Michaels stole the money, if he did, why the hell wouldn’t Scott Gore fire him? Christ. This donation only shows that the Union is willing to move on from this embarrassing debacle, and keep the original goal in view, which was of course, donating money to Haiti.

I’ll try to be a bit more timely in updating, Menace fans (and Kyle) but being a full time student has its costs. I look forward to starting my new Public Relations Initiatives next week, which I’ll fill everyone in about later on.

Onwards and Upwards,

-Red Menace, out