Books, buses and ballots are on the minds of Madison College’s elected leaders. The MATC student senate is tackling issues related to these items in the upcoming school year.

According to Senate President Ousmane Kabre, the initiative to help with the costs of books is centered on the 3As – Access, Affordability and Awareness.  Senate and College administrators are working with instructors to encourage use of more open online sources. The affordability portion of the plan is set to encourage students to purchase their textbooks online. To raise awareness of the program, the senate is organizing a workshop for instructors to provide information and help with making lower cost choices for course materials.

A bus pass is included as part of student fees. According to Kabre, many students who own a car sell their Madison College bus pass through online vendors like craiglist.com or directly to people they know. Kabre believes the college can save money and reduce fraud if students use their student IDs to ride the city bus. For that reason, the Senate has been working with Madison Metro and UW Madison to set up a system to allow use of student IDs to ride the bus.

“We finally got good news that Madison Metro will acquire new equipment that will allow students to use their ID instead of their bus pass,” Kabre said. «If that happens, the college will be able to cut the expenses used to purchase bus tickets.»

The Senate is also working on creating more access to parking downtown and is planning a commuter fair to encourage use of the shuttle, the city bus or carpooling.  Look for the following Senate sponsored events: Commuter Awareness Displays – September 4-7 (Truax, Downtown and West); Commuter Fair – September 5 (Truax) and September 6 (Downtown), 11 a.m.-1 p.m.; Bike Clinic – September 7 (Truax) 9 a.m.-3 p.m.

The Senate invites students to run for office. Socials are set for all main campuses:  Thursday August 30th (Truax), Thursday September 6th (West Campus), Thursday, September 13th (Downtown) to encourage participation in student government.