Stoutonia

Issue date: 10/2/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Andrew Barrette

University of Wisconsin-Stout students' votes will decide whether participation in the United Council is still worth spending $32,000 a year out of tuition.

On April 12, 2007, UW-Stout students voted yes on a referendum asking if the University of Wisconsin-Stout should become a member of the United Council of UW Students. On September 9, 2008, the University Student Senate of the Stout Student Association voted unanimously in favor of having another referendum to be held Thursday, Oct. 9.

"UC has the potential to make a major difference," said Micheal Lubke, Stout's student body president. "The idea behind UC is great, but going in we knew there were internal issues to resolve."

United Council, or UC as it is more commonly referred to, is essentially the collective student government body of the UW System. UW campuses may choose to be members of UC, and in doing so agree to have each student pay a mandatory refundable fee of two dollars per semester. With roughly 8,000 students enrolled at Stout, that makes a grand total of about $32,000 a year. The question is: Where has this money gone, and is our membership worth continuing? This will be for the students to decide.

According to UC's history webpage, students from across the UW System came together in 1960 to form one, unified voice. Presumably, this unified voice, or UC, of UW Students would be a stronger voice taken more seriously by the Wisconsin Legislature, the Board of Regents and Wisconsin residents.

When Stout became a member campus, Lubke, like much of Stout's University Student Senate, believed that "if joining UC could help keep the cost of tuition down and access to an affordable education a reality, the effort would be worth it."

Lubke pointed out that over the past year, UW-La Crosse and UW-Oshkosh have dropped out of the UC and although UW-Milwaukee passed a referendum to drop out, it was overruled due to failure to notify UC of the referendum in time. "United Council no longer represents a majority of the 13 four-year UW System schools, and the reputation of United Council has suffered with the state legislature and UW Board of regents," Lubke stated.

According to Lubke, although all 13 two-year colleges are currently members of UC, only six of the 13 four-year universities remain which does not comprise a unified voice. Furthermore, at the last UC General Assembly only thirteen of the nineteen member campuses showed up-an occurrence, Lubke says, that is all too common.

So what makes Stout's membership worth $32,000 a year? UC President Josh Mann stated that "UC is committed to working on issues of access and affordability," and that "it is important that we not only make sure students can get in and pay for school, but that they experience a high quality of education and safe student life."

Mann went on to say that there "continues to be deliberate attacks on certain populations including women, people of color and LGBTQ students" and that "any infringement on a student's right to access [and] affordability…is a core issue to this organization."

In fact, the Corporate Bylaws-the document which defines UC-lists protecting and defending "quality and accessibility of higher education" as the number one purpose of the organization. What, then, is causing schools to drop out of UC? What issues are dividing our potentially unified student voice?

Chad Johnson, a UW-Milwaukee student who lost the race for UC President by a mere two votes, blamed UC's "enormous agenda," observing that "an increasing number of students are on the brink of being priced out of education, and solving this problem should take priority over the many other divisive activities UC utilizes its resource base for.

"If students can't even afford to go to public universities, these other causes inevitably become moot points," Johnson said.

Lubke gave a similar response, stating that "the main issues of access and affordability facing the average student are not addressed to the magnitude needed."

"UC provides many services and opportunities to students from Stout and for all students across the state," Mann said, listing examples including eight full-time staff, conferences such as Building Unity, Women's Leadership, LGBTQ Summit, a Multicultural Conference and a Student Leadership Retreat, as well as parliamentary procedure trainings, backward training, media techniques, leadership development, and voter registration.

At a time of critically low state investment in higher education, UC covers issues ranging from environmental issues, to gender identity, women's issues, multicultural issues and sexuality issues all on top of the core issues of affordability and access.
Does UC have the capacity for such a wide focus?

Johnson expressed his opinion on the issue saying that, "At a time of massive economic unrest, UC needs to narrow its focus to issues that all students feel they can relate to." This, Johnson stated, "leaves UC a group doing a lot of things mediocre, instead of a few things successfully."

Indeed, at UC's June General Assembly, Colleene Thomas and Kevin Opgenorth, the two students appointed by Governor Doyle to serve on the UW System Board of Regents, expressed a shared belief that state-funded reinvestment in higher education is an issue in itself large enough for UC to potentially dedicate all its time and resources to.

While Mann claims that UC has won victories such as veterans' tuition remission, a tuition freeze for two year UW's gender neutral bathrooms, Johnson and Lubke spoke skeptically of such victories, pointing out that they may often be attributable to influences outside of UC.

Democratic state assemblyman Gordon Hintz addressed UC in April 2007, pointing out that even if UC does have the time and resources to rally behind all of these reasonable concerns, the state only has so much money to allocate. Hintz recommended UC be cautious in its budgetary demands in order to be sure student concerns are taken seriously.

So where do we go from here? Although UC's future may be unclear, Stout students will determine our future in the organization shortly. Cast your vote Oct. 9.


HOW TO VOTE
What:  United Council Referendum
When:  Thursday, Oct. 9
Who:  All UW-Stout Students
How:  Students will receive and cast their ballot via the Stout webmail system.


For more information, contact your representatives in University Student Senate of the Stout Student Association by going to ssa.uwstout.edu, calling 232-2100, or stopping by room 141 of the MSC.  Be sure to check out UC for yourself at www.unitedcouncil.net.

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools