Wisconsin State Legislature Takes Aim at United Council, Nation’s Oldest Statewide Student Association
Just a few hours ago, a budget committee of the Wisconsin state legislature voted to eliminate students’ right to fund the nation’s oldest and most respected statewide student association, United Council. This could well be the biggest student movement story in the United States this year.
United Council, founded in 1960, was the first of the wave of state student associations established in the sixties and seventies, and has consistently been one of the most successful. UC has been a consistently strong voice for students in Madison and across Wisconsin, and is a model and mentor to student organizers across the country.
Though United Council has at times been controversial in some quarters, it rests on a democratic base of student support. Campuses join UC by student referendum, and students on campuses that choose to join pay a membership fee of $3 a semester as part of their tuition payment. Individual students have the right to request a refund of that fee if they oppose United Council membership, and any time that a student government or group of students comes to oppose UC, they can arrange to run a referendum to end their campus’s membership.
This is how UC membership has operated for decades, and it’s a model that is in place for other groups around
United Council, founded in 1960, was the first of the wave of state student associations established in the sixties and seventies, and has consistently been one of the most successful. UC has been a consistently strong voice for students in Madison and across Wisconsin, and is a model and mentor to student organizers across the country.
Though United Council has at times been controversial in some quarters, it rests on a democratic base of student support. Campuses join UC by student referendum, and students on campuses that choose to join pay a membership fee of $3 a semester as part of their tuition payment. Individual students have the right to request a refund of that fee if they oppose United Council membership, and any time that a student government or group of students comes to oppose UC, they can arrange to run a referendum to end their campus’s membership.
This is how UC membership has operated for decades, and it’s a model that is in place for other groups around