Student representatives from all 26 University of Wisconsin campuses met in the Student Activity Center Friday, Saturday and Sunday to discuss the restructuring of the United Council of UW Students.

According to United Council President Josh Mann, the council has been working the past five months to better its mission statement as well as its structure of the board of directors and the general assembly.

“We’re here to represent the students for higher education to make sure their needs are being met and that college is accessible and affordable across the state,” said Mann, a UW-Milwaukee student.

In the past, the council has concentrated its efforts on a “broad horizon” of tasks, many of which were too large to conquer, according to Mann. The council is looking to refocus its efforts on more attainable goals.

Mann added though all students are represented in the UW System when the council lobbies legislature or addresses issues, only 19 of the 26 UW institutions choose to be members of the council itself.

“The other [seven universities] decided to be non-members because they don’t think the council fully represents their views. We had a lot of non-members come and help us with the process and give their input to what would make us better,” Mann said. “We hope to bring them back to the United Council to represent the needs of students.”

UW-Green Bay, UW-Whitewater and UW-Oshkosh are included among the seven non-member institutions.

“We have never been affiliated with them basically because lack of communication that we feel would exist between the board and our campus,” said Tim Scully, public relations director of the UW-Whitewater Student Council.

Scully added students didn’t benefit enough from the council to incur the $2 fee per student on campus the council charges as membership dues.

According to Scully, representatives from UW-Whitewater attended the meeting and voted in favor for restructuring of the committee.

“We think [restructuring] is beneficial to them,” Scully said. “If after that happens it’s something our senate and students agree with it’s absolutely something we’ll enter but not until then.”

Scully recommended the council create liaisons on each campus to work together directly and better communication.

“It should be student government presidents, but because they typically have a lot on their agenda, having someone on each of the campuses doing daily things for the council would not only benefit the students but United Council as a whole,” Scully said.

Now that the council has gotten approval from the general assembly to move forward with the 14-page document of additional changes and improvements discussed at this weekend’s meeting, Mann said they will reconvene sometime soon to continue the process of editing bylaws and making changes to their constitution.

“We voted on what this reconstructing committee came up with, and it’s getting the kick off to reconstructing,” Mann said. “Now we can sit down and figure out specifically how this organization is going to work and how we are going to function.”