Students push to be represented on University financial committees, but some administrators say including students would make no difference.

However, Graduate Student Association President Ken Martin said students should be on the University's Budget Task Force, which decides what projects and departments get priority for University funding.

Three students are on the President's Planning and Budget Advisory Committee, a group that makes recommendations to the task force, Martin said.

The task force should also include faculty members, said Ron Marlow, the advisory committee's graduate student representative.

Students and faculty can advise -- but cannot make decisions-- as members of the advisory committee, Marlow said, which gives them a "hollow place" in the planning process. In the end their recommendations can be disregarded, he said.

Marlow said students on the advisory committee are at a disadvantage because they serve their terms until the end of the Spring Semester, while the task force meets from May until July. Because the advisory committee is not active during budget decision-making time, it is hard for students to gauge how their recommendations are used, Marlow said.

"You have no way of knowing what advice was actually taken and put to use," Marlow said. He said the task force's material is kept confidential.

Executive Director of Planning and Analysis Gregory Lozier, an advisory committee member, said he saw no reason why students should not be on the task force, but he added that students are probably not needed there.

"I really think they're on the more important committee," Lozier said.

The advisory committee is crucial, Lozier said, because although it does not make final decisions, its members can question budgetary priorities and voice concerns.

"It's the opportunity to explore the direction the University is going," Lozier said.

Martin said students on the task force would have to be financially experienced and that a year on the advisory committee could serve as a prerequisite to the task force.

Students do not sit on the University Development Committee, but the committee does include faculty, Martin said. The development committee decides what projects deserve mini-campaign funding.

"If there's a faculty member we feel there should be student representation as well," said E.J. Shaffer, the student representative on the University Board of Trustees.

But even if students were on the committee, they probably could not have affected the group's decision to campaign for a new convocation center and a new biomedical center in Hershey instead of the Paul Robeson Cultural Center, University President Joab Thomas told the University Student Advisory Board two weeks ago.

"Having students on that committee would not have made a particle of difference in what happened," Thomas said to the student board.

Senior Vice President for Development and University Relations David Gearhart said students may not be interested in the development committee.

"It really only meets periodically as the need presents itself," Gearhart said.