Recently, the totally awesome website urbanmilwaukee.com posted a front-page editorial/article saying how the SA is subsidizing parking and encouraging car-driving and not giving a squat about the commun -- here, read it: http://urbanmilwaukee.com/2011/03/10/uwm-should-end-the-parking-subsidy/
As a member of the Student Association of UWM, I believe I have an explanation for what's going on (if you read the comments, then you already read this).
First off, we are actively lobbying against the loss of the lakefront lots. Those lots allow free parking for hundreds of UWM students on a daily basis. If we do lose the lots, we do not want to force these students to pay four dollars a day every day to park. This is why we are suggesting raising segregated fees 15 dollars per student per semester -- to try and make the loss of the lots much more manageable for our commuter students.
This isn't a matter of us encouraging students to take the bus as opposed to driving to school (we are encouraging that quite sufficiently with our participation in the U-PASS program). I personally know several students that live well beyond the range of our increasingly cut-back bus system (i.e. Racine, Zion). Living near/on campus is simply not an economic solution for many UWM students in these times, and the loss of many of our free parking spots would be a deal-killer for more than a few students. We recently acquired a whole parking garage and I see no reason why we cannot transfer the lost spots to the new location. It most certainly will save us those students that cannot afford an estimated $500/semester tacked on to their transit.
Furthermore, UWM has been contributing more now than ever to the urban environment of Milwaukee. For the first time in our history, we have enough residence hall space for an entire freshman class. Chancellor Santiago, before his departure, was contemplating a mandatory on-campus first year for all incoming freshmen. And, unlike certain other urban campuses in our city, our new dorms and proposed schools are not cloistered together in a single area but woven in to the fabric of the East Side and Downtown, with the regrettable exception of Innovation Park (which the Student Association had no input on).
Try not to think of the SA as "subsidizing parking." We're trying to not only keep commuter students at our university, but ensure that they can stay on campus and participate in our community without having to shell out hundreds more to do so. At the same time, the University is renewing its commitment to contribute to the city by pursuing the School of Freshwater Sciences and the School of Public Health.
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Last Week's Senate Meeting
I started this blog kinda late, so I'm retroactively covering what went down at last week's senate meeting.
In case you didn't hear, one of the most controversial pieces of paper the senate had in front of it (aside from that steaming heap of wordspout known as the proposed constitution; more on that later) was SB 1011 - 40 aka the thing that said we should stand with our TA's and their collective bargaining rights.
The budget bill is a hot issue right now and will be for some time. The students of UWM clearly want to stand with their instructors and brethren no matter what -- they are, after all, what makes this campus what it is. It therefore follows that the elected representatives of the students (i.e. senators) should make this clear to everyone else.
But where things get fuzzy is in how we should say just that.
Their are students that stand with the TA's and firmly agree that they should maintain their collective bargaining rights. There are some who say that bargaining rights en masse make our University more attractive to prospective employees and can be used as a bargaining chip to bring them to UWM. And of course there are those who do not agree with the first two and either support what Walker has proposed or simply don't give two thumbs about the situation and would like to take no concrete stance.
As senators, it is our job to represent all of our students to the best of our ability. And while the two former groups I just described are obviously in the majority, there are many students who fall into the other categories. Giving all sides representation is what is honestly very important here, no matter what the perceived effects of passing a neutered bill would be.
Which is why Senator Hastert, the logical thinker he is, suggested a very diplomatic and entirely inoffensive compromise that said students stand with their TA's while not mentioning collective bargaining.
But that's not what got passed.
Passionate arguments were given on both sides, and the original bill ended up passing. This disappointed me for the sole reason that it did not accurately represent the sentiments of students.
The day after the senate meeting, I was explaining the occurrences of the meeting to my better half at the route 15 bus stop when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around and was politely greeted by a <NAME REDACTED> grad student whole had overheard my conversation with Courtney. She explained that she was in fact one of the students that did not agree with collective bargaining and was royally pissed by the fact that several of her TA's had taken off to Madtown and some of her professors encouraged her to go protest. She couldn't believe her student representatives could pass such legislation fairly.
I personally do not want to make our University seem unappealing to TA's and I will stand with them. I just can't bring myself to support legislation with such a clear bias unrepresentative of the student body of UWM.
And that's my two bits :)
In case you didn't hear, one of the most controversial pieces of paper the senate had in front of it (aside from that steaming heap of wordspout known as the proposed constitution; more on that later) was SB 1011 - 40 aka the thing that said we should stand with our TA's and their collective bargaining rights.
The budget bill is a hot issue right now and will be for some time. The students of UWM clearly want to stand with their instructors and brethren no matter what -- they are, after all, what makes this campus what it is. It therefore follows that the elected representatives of the students (i.e. senators) should make this clear to everyone else.
But where things get fuzzy is in how we should say just that.
Their are students that stand with the TA's and firmly agree that they should maintain their collective bargaining rights. There are some who say that bargaining rights en masse make our University more attractive to prospective employees and can be used as a bargaining chip to bring them to UWM. And of course there are those who do not agree with the first two and either support what Walker has proposed or simply don't give two thumbs about the situation and would like to take no concrete stance.
As senators, it is our job to represent all of our students to the best of our ability. And while the two former groups I just described are obviously in the majority, there are many students who fall into the other categories. Giving all sides representation is what is honestly very important here, no matter what the perceived effects of passing a neutered bill would be.
Which is why Senator Hastert, the logical thinker he is, suggested a very diplomatic and entirely inoffensive compromise that said students stand with their TA's while not mentioning collective bargaining.
But that's not what got passed.
Passionate arguments were given on both sides, and the original bill ended up passing. This disappointed me for the sole reason that it did not accurately represent the sentiments of students.
The day after the senate meeting, I was explaining the occurrences of the meeting to my better half at the route 15 bus stop when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around and was politely greeted by a <NAME REDACTED> grad student whole had overheard my conversation with Courtney. She explained that she was in fact one of the students that did not agree with collective bargaining and was royally pissed by the fact that several of her TA's had taken off to Madtown and some of her professors encouraged her to go protest. She couldn't believe her student representatives could pass such legislation fairly.
I personally do not want to make our University seem unappealing to TA's and I will stand with them. I just can't bring myself to support legislation with such a clear bias unrepresentative of the student body of UWM.
And that's my two bits :)
The SA's own Guardian of Liberty
Hey everyone, I'm Brent -- the infamous Assistant Legislative Liaison of the Student Association of UWM. It's more important a title than it sounds.
My ulterior motive for creating this blog is to plug the Red Menace's and my own 2011 election campaign, but I'd also really, REALLY like the chance to have some things said about the SA and what's going on.
So check back for updates and mind-spout on this sparingly-updated glorified twitter feed!
My ulterior motive for creating this blog is to plug the Red Menace's and my own 2011 election campaign, but I'd also really, REALLY like the chance to have some things said about the SA and what's going on.
So check back for updates and mind-spout on this sparingly-updated glorified twitter feed!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)