The student government at the University Wisconsin-Milwaukee is finally drafting a shared governance plan more than 30 years after a state Supreme Court ruling gave students the right to be involved in the governing process.

UWM Student Association President Travis Romero-Boeck issued an executive order that created a commission whose job will be to draft a compressive shared governance document for their campus.

Romero-Boeck said he wants students to have a place and a voice in the decisions that affect them, which is sometimes not the case now.

“There’s no system in place right now for students to go through,” Romero-Boeck said. “Sometimes a policy is made and I don’t hear about them for a month.”

According to a press release from UWM, in 1976 the Student Association took then-Chancellor Werner Baum to the state Supreme Court for failing to follow a state statute which stated students had the primary responsibility in forming and reviewing policies related to student lives, services and interests.

The Student Association won the case; however, no actual policy was ever created by the Student Association to enforce the ruling.

The Associated Students of Madison Chair Brandon Williams said UW-Madison has had a shared governance policy in place for more than 17 years.

Williams said UW’s shared governance has two main components, the regulation of student segregated fees and working on university policy through students on committees.

Williams said shared governance is definitely important for students across the state to have, and it is critical they have a state statue which gives students the right to be a part of the process.

The UWM commission has not met yet, but hopes to have the shared governance document voted on and approved by the start of second semester this academic year, Romero-Boeck said.