But the council needs to do more than create new avenues of communication. Currently, members' votes are not recorded unless a fifth of the council votes to do so. It is impossible for students to judge their representatives' performance without a record of how they voted on important issues. Recording purely procedural votes might be helpful, but recording final votes on nominations, amendments and bills should be seen as a responsibility. It would take only a short initial investment of programming time to make the council's website into a powerful resource for students to check on their representatives' attendance and voting patterns. After the system is created, the additional workload of entering information would be minor compared to the benefits increased transparency would bring the student community.

This session of the council has performed admirably thus far in addressing issues of student concern, and the new "uc-announce" service has been a useful index of council accomplishments. But if the council wants to be taken seriously-and to wield the influence on campus that it deserves-it must adopt measures of accountability that are appropriate to a serious representative body.

After all, the Katz Committee should be only the first step. The University ought to solicit the opinion of the students more often, and the easiest way for it to do so is to consult an accountable council.