Student councils are often seen as boring and bureaucratic, but the Arts and Architecture Student Council defies the stereotypes.

"One of our main goals is to get the students involved and have fun," said K. Stewart McKinney (senior-fine arts), president of the Arts and Architecture Student Council.

Until last spring, the Arts and Architecture Student Council had been defunct for four years due to a lack of student interest.

Carl L. Blake, adviser to the student council and an initial pioneer in its reactivation, said confirmation of the council's reinstatement by the Undergraduate Student Government is still pending.

With the support of James C. Moeser, dean of the College of Arts and Architecture, and Blake, who is also assistant dean of Recruitment and Retention, the council was reactivated. Now the Arts and Architecture Student Council consists of fourteen members, with at least one person representing each department in the college. Among them are the architecture, landscape architecture, integrative arts, music, theater and visual arts departments.

This equal representation helps to break down the physical distance between the separate departments. Because of the distance between offices, integration is difficult.

"We are trying to get all the different types of arts to interact together," council secretary Susan Pirrello (junior-art education) said.

Along with departmental representation, the council tries to make resources easy for students to attain by providing them with representation at the Faculty Senate and USG. Since the council is fairly new and has done little fundraising, representation includes applying for a new budget.

"The student council is not just concerned with what's happening in Arts and Architecture, but the University as a whole," McKinney said.

Aside from the paper-pushing responsibilities of the student council, the group also sponsors outside events. One such event will be in March, when the council will hold a student architecture and landscape architecture exhibition in the west wing of Pattee. Over a period of six weeks architecture projects and landscape architecture demonstrations will be featured.

In the future, the Arts and Architecture Student Council plans to hold social functions in order to generate student interest.

"This will be to get people together socially rather than in a meeting," Pirrello said.

Both Pirrello and McKinney said that the student council is always interested in getting new people and furthering student involvement.

"It's more than just going to USG meetings," McKinney said.