University of Wisconsin-Madison
PA-3: Inclusive and Participatory Governance

The Associated Students of Madison is the official student governance body at UW-Madison (https://asm.wisc.edu/about-asm/). ASM is composed of roughly 50 elected or appointed students, 50 student employees, 12 professional staff members, and 200 student appointees on committees that hold legal rights to recommend university policies, budgets, and candidates for UW employment. ASM allocates approximately $50 million in segregated university fees each year and is responsible for management of the Student Activity Center and distribution of the student bus pass. The roles of ASM can be divided into three categories: direct action, governance, and service. The Student Council is a branch of ASM. It is comprised of 33 elected representatives and is chiefly responsible for exercising the legislative powers and duties as stipulated by Wisconsin State Statute 36.09(5) (addressing shared governance).

The University Staff Congress is the largest representative shared governance body for university staff at UW-Madison (https://ous.wisc.edu/congress-2/). Congress is the final decision-making body in the university staff shared governance process. This applies to any questions forwarded to it by the University Staff Central Committee or any standing, ad-hoc, Chapter 6, or other shared governance committee or group. Individual members of Congress regularly solicit opinions from their districts and provide updates on shared governance developments, as well as inform employees of opportunities to participate in upcoming events, forums, listening sessions, focus groups, and elections. In addition, employees are encouraged to provide feedback to their representatives.

UW-Madison academic staff also participate in shared governance. The Academic Staff Assembly is an elected body, currently made up of 119 districts that represent the interests of academic staff in governance and policy development at UW-Madison (https://acstaff.wisc.edu/governance/academic-staff-assembly/). The Assembly debates and votes on policy issues affecting academic staff presented by the Academic Staff Executive Committee, members of Assembly Standing Committees, or the Assembly. Each academic staff member is assigned to a district that is represented in the Assembly by an elected representative. District assignments are based on two considerations: 1) the staff member’s job code (title), and 2) the employee’s division and department. Representatives are elected for two-year terms; there is no limit on the number of terms they can serve.

Faculty exercise their shared governance rights through Faculty Senate (https://secfac.wisc.edu/governance/faculty-senate/). The faculty has primary responsibility for academic and educational activities and for faculty personnel matters.

The Joint Campus Area Committee is an official city committee set up to participate in facilities planning activities which affect the campus, city, village, and surrounding neighborhoods. This joint committee is composed of university, city, and village staff, as well as neighborhood representatives, alders, and a UW student. The charge of this committee (Madison General Ordinance Sec. 33.32(1)) is to identify community-wide and neighborhood impacts of campus-initiated, city/village related, and private sector development projects within the context of sound planning principles that afford the greatest benefit. Each of these committees acts as the voice of the neighborhood/organization and is tasked with disseminating information to their neighborhood/organization and receiving/reporting that information back to the committee. More information is available here: https://cpla.fpm.wisc.edu/planning/neighborhood-plans-maps-2/.

The UW-Madison Design Review Board is tasked with reviewing the architectural and site design for all new buildings, building additions, landscape designs, or studies for major physical change on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus as defined in the most recent, City of Madison approved, Campus Master Plan. More information is available on pages 19-22 of this report: https://fpmcpla.wiscweb.wisc.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2018/09/UW-MadisonCampusDesignGuidelines-Aug2017-web.pdf.