The national media turned the spotlight on more than 3,000 Boston University students two years ago as they took to the streets to protest a stringent campus housing proposal.

Student Union President Susheel Srikonda remembers that boisterous September day and the debate he had over the issue with University President John Silver on the Phil Donahue show.

But to the country's surprise, the controversial proposal to ban co-ed sleep-overs on campus passed, and student government has made little progress against the rule since.

According to listings in Peterson's Guide to Four-Year Colleges, an overwhelming majority of higher education institutions in the United States have some form of student government.

"I think a good student government and leadership have an important contribution to make to a college or university," said Thomas Eakin, Penn State's assistant vice president for the division of student programs. "We ought to be sensitive to student needs and consideration. I feel strongly about that.

"But administration and faculty, in the final analysis, should determine policy and practices."

Penn State's Undergraduate Student Government is separated into legislative, judicial and executive sections.

The USG Senate and the Academic Assembly are the legislative groups. The senate represents student concerns on and off campus, while the academic assembly handles education policy and curriculum-oriented issues.

The executive branch includes the USG president, vice president, secretary and treasurer, and the various departments, while the USG Supreme Court focuses upon registering student organizations with the University, Chief Justice Dennis Pollard (senior-psychology) said.

Annette Ciaffoni (senior-health policy and administration), a member of Academic Assembly, said although student senators command faculty respect, the assembly as a whole could be more outspoken.

"Very few colleges have had good representation," Ciaffoni said of the assembly. "In the past several years there has been only one successful meeting at Health and Human Development."

However, for the University, the process of addressing student concerns about the climate for diversity -- such as constructing a permanent Paul Robeson Cultural Center -- has been slow, Pollard and Eakin say.

"We've seen some success," Eakin said. "Is the process fast enough? Probably never."

Ernest Kim, an executive board member of the Boston University student government, said the organization is often bogged down by bureaucracy and infighting.

"I could see less student government," he said. "But life without it would be very difficult because we have such an iron-fisted, blinded administration that life here would come to a halt."

Residence hall students are represented by local governments, which are given a per-capita budget by the administration for orientation programs and intramural athletics, Kim said.

The local governments are represented in a senate, which with an executive branch, composes the overall Student Union.

Student Union adviser Michael Neff said student activism at Boston University is mild compared to his college days at the University of Michigan.

"The student government here is concerned with what happens on campus, but at the University of Michigan we wanted a condemnation of the Afghanistan invasion," Neff said.

About 150 nautical miles from Boston University, the Coast Guard Academy, an elite military school of 850 students in New London, Conn., has a comparatively limited form of student input.

Commander Earl Potter, the school's associate dean of academics, said the coast guard's military system of command and discipline leaves little room for debate over administrative decisions.

"You won't find them conducting a sit-in in the administration building or carrying placards," Potter said of Coast Guard Cadets. "If you ask people if they can make a difference in the way this place is run, they would likely say no."

Seniors in the Coast Guard Academy are eligible for appointment by Coast Guard officers to the Regimental Organization, a group of cadets placed in charge of a category of cadet life.

These posts include, among others, conduct, honor and civil rights, said junior cadet Joe Ryan.

Potter said in matters of discipline, these cadets meet and advise the deans on their decision. The cadets are expected to have the proper connections to give advice and resolve problems in these areas, Ryan said.

"People speak up, but in the military system people farther down the ladder advise and the decisions are made at the top," Potter said. "I think the sense of the cadets is that they're not listened to."

Cadets can express their opinions, within reason, in the school paper, Ryan said.

For example, at one time, cadets were not allowed to close their dormitory doors during the day. While that rule was reversed, rumors surfaced that it could be reinstated after some cadets were caught "showing affection" behind closed doors at the co-ed academy, Ryan said.

Ryan said the paper has run letters to the editor opposing the rule and added that company officers, assigned to oversee cadets, may pick up on resentment and could help prevent the open door rule from going into effect.

The student government of Oklahoma University in Norman serves about 19,000 Sooner fans.

Undergraduate students are represented by a congress and graduates by a graduate senate, both with 48 members. The congress and senate share an executive branch which includes a president, vice president and three executive assistants.

Outgoing executive president Randy McDaniel rates his student government high on a scale of effectiveness.

"I'd say we're a real powerful student government," McDaniel said. Final decisions are made by the administration, though.