Although many people agree the student delegation to the University Council is running much smoother than in years past, several problems still are being looked at.

UC Executive Secretary Curtiss Behrens said one of the perennial problems with the student delegation has been the filling of all the seats allotted students.

“In the past there hasn’t been complete student membership,” Behrens said. “They have done well in getting this accomplished this year.”

In fact, all of the student delegation’s 15 allotted seats have been filled at this point.

Student representation in the UC is made up of 15 members of the total 47 voting seats in the council. The 15 student seats are broken down into eight Student Association appointees and seven other students, one appointed from each of the university’s colleges.

Student Association President Abe Andrzejewski said the different backgrounds of the student delegation was not a problem in achieving student unity in the council.

“We have a lot more in common with each other than administrators on purely student interests,” Andrzejewski said. “We have voted consistently together throughout the year, even though we haven’t been faced with any real controversial issues.”

Despite the improved student performance, inherent problems with the way the system is working has forced the council to propose changes in the “Bylaws” regarding student participation.

The UC requested names of the student representatives by April 15. This early deadline for students has been one of the reasons many positions have been left vacant in the past.

This appears to have affected the student representative from the College of Education to the UC. Although a student has been named to the position, the student has yet to appear at any UC meeting.

Although the student could not be reached for comment, Brent Wholeben, assistant dean of the College of Education and adviser to the college’s Student Advisory Committee, which chooses the student representative, said there were several problems in choosing a representative.

Choosing a student by the UC’s deadline, he said, “is almost impossible with add/drop week.”

“Students don’t know what their schedule is going to be and whether they are going to have time,” he said.

Wholeben said, “In terms of practicality, it is well into the fall semester before we identify people nominated for the position.”

The changes in the Bylaws would allow seats from the colleges remaining empty to be filled by a committee comprised of the SA and college representatives already on the council, with the student coming from the college in which the vacancy exists.

Andrzejewski called the proposed amendment “housekeeping changes,” and said except for a few changes dealing with deadline dates, he supported the changes.