United Council pulled it off: After garnering a solid majority in the Associated Students of Madison referendum last week, the University of Wisconsin will remain a member of the statewide student association.

That means each semester for the next two years, every student on this campus will pay $2 in refundable fees. These tens of thousands of dollars flow into UC alongside those of other member schools each year, last year amounting to $427,733 in revenue.

That’s a lot of money. And while UC’s website and supporters list grassroots organizing, lobbying and networking and leadership opportunities as its main work in representing students, there is no pressure for UC to demonstrate our fees actually go toward these causes that are trumpeted so proudly. With such little communication to its “member” students, UC can claim the successes it wants and continue to scrape by on the grace of short institutional memory.

If UC does everything it says it does, fine. That knowledge would make me glad. But as a UW student and dues-paying member of UC, I expect to be able to see where my money goes. I want to see the successes, the failures, the proof that attempts are made every year to refine the actions of an organization with such sprawling goals.

Visiting their website to accomplish this is a dead end. Links are broken and information is vague, press releases are difficult to find and often suggest accomplishments that are not UC’s to claim. For the average student, that’s enough to stifle even the strongest case of vague curiosity about student government.

I decided to dig a little deeper. Using GuideStar, I dredged up some of the IRS forms UC is required to file to obtain non-profit status.

I found that while UC is governed by a student-run board of directors, it draws little attention to the fact that it paid six non-student staff members a combined $186,816 in salaries in 2010.

You can argue it’s necessary to have full-time employees supporting UC, but what hurts is that it could be students serving those positions, as is the style of ASM. It also hurts that the executive director and government relations director – both marked as 40-hour-a-week employees in the forms – also serve as UC’s registered lobbyists.

The Government Accountability Board states that UC spent $10,028 on lobbying expenditures in 2010. They also dedicated 520 hours in lobbying efforts – an admirable number, but sharp decline from the 1,225 the year before.

I want to know why someone can serve as both a full-time lobbyist and director, and why that is in my best interest. I also want to know the reasoning behind supporting lobbying efforts going to one cause over another. I want the occasional annoying email inviting me to UC events and explaining what has been accomplished in recent weeks.

In short, I want the option to feel informed without having to question the occasional UC representative I come across or dig through state records.

There is no way for the 140,000 students UC says it represents to hold it accountable, aside from voting on membership every two years – a vote that passed at UW with a “yes” vote from just 8.3 percent of the student body. Now that it has our membership, its time for UC to recognize that now is when it can prove its relevance. We are in the middle of a historic moment in the UW System. UW is on the verge of breaking off with its own new governing board and schools system-wide are grappling with how to keep education accessible financially while maintaining quality.

In other words, it’s time for UC to step up and hold itself accountable day by day. There needs to be a decent website and education of students beyond those who attend UC conferences.

We’re stuck together for at least the next two years. Let’s make the best of it.

Signe Brewster ([email protected]) is a junior majoring in life sciences communication.