Students at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee voted to end their membership with United Council, with 53 percent of 2,500 total choosing to cut ties.

According to their website, United Council is “a non-partisan, non-profit, student-directed organization committed to enhancing the quality of student life and protecting access to higher education in Wisconsin.”

Currently, they represent around 100,000 students on 16 UW campuses, which will decrease to 15 after the fall semester when UW-Milwaukee is no longer a member.

“We have had a lot of great successes over the years,” said Michael Moscicke, government relations director for United Council. “We’ve been able to coordinate with students and other organizations, for example WISPIRG, as well as work with legislators and state agencies.”

The Student Appropriations Committee, an organization on the UW-Milwaukee campus similar to the Student Services Finance Committee at UW, decided at a meeting this summer to post a referendum to vote on withdrawing membership from the group after not being satisfied with what they had to offer students, according to former UC President and SAC Chair Anthony DeWees.

“They definitely need to improve their ability to communicate with the constituents they represent,” DeWees said. “They have done a really poor job with getting students involved.”

He added the main issues they saw came about from structural changes which included combining the staff positions of university of affairs director — who dealt with the Board of Regents — and legislative affairs director into one position, something with which DeWees disagreed.

The UC also combined the three staff positions of woman’s affairs, diversity and LGBT, which DeWees said he believed the UC should decide to fully work on these issues or drop the positions completely, rather than putting minimal effort into the areas.

“United Council hasn’t been working for students,” DeWees said. “I see the idea: students need a voice and someone to lobby for student issues, but as far as seeing them do something, I’ve never actually seen UC do its job and fulfill its promise to students.”

Matthew Capristo, vice chair of SAC, said the general opinion within the student association was UC did not represent the value of all students and lacked a real presence on campus.

According to Moscicke, this year UC is trying a new outreach campaign to do just that, opening a chapter at UW and expanding direct contact with students.

“We aim to involve students more directly because, although we have had a high level of involvement with student government, we wanted to get closer to the students,” Moscicke said. “We want to have a constant presence on campus.”

He added he believes students did not have an adequate amount of time at UW-Milwaukee to learn about what UC offers and the referendum was pushed by Student Council members because of personal conflicts with UC. He hopes they will allow students to vote again in the spring to rejoin but sees that as an unlikely option.

“I think UC does have a future, but they just need to prove to the campuses that have left that they will change; if they continue to just do nothing and operating the way they are, people will look for other means to be represented,” DeWees said.