As of Wednesday night Student Senate planned to hold an annual campus-wide referendum early next month to keep or rescind the university’s membership in the United Council of UW Students, a UW System student lobbying organization, Senate President Tim Lauer said.

The referendum is currently scheduled to take place May 4 and 5. It originally was supposed to run next week but was postponed after United Council failed to vote on changes to its own bylaws this weekend at a council meeting in Kenosha, several Senate members said this week.

After the council failed to address the bylaw changes, Senate began discussing this week the possibility of pushing back the referendum until next fall, when the changes were expected to be finalized.

“We want to postpone the referendum until (United Council’s) restructuring process takes a little more hold,” Lauer said on Monday, explaining he didn’t want students to vote on the university’s Council membership before the bylaw changes had been set.

Lauer said he and Vice President Meghan Charlier met with Senate adviser Jodi Thesing-Ritter on Tuesday night and agreed afterward to tentatively postpone the referendum until early May, with the possibility that a special meeting could set a different date instead. As of Wednesday night, however, Lauer said the possibility that Senate would hold a special meeting was unlikely, meaning the referendum probably would remain scheduled for early next month.

Lauer said there has been some discontent with United Council recently, but said he is encouraged by the prospects set forth by the proposed bylaw changes.

Charlier said Senate’s discontent lies in part with perceived heavy representation on United Council by UW-Madison and UW-Milwaukee.

Charlier also said she is concerned about a lack of credibility on the council, citing what she said were unrealistic financial requests made in a recent United Council report on the proposed state budget.