The Undergraduate Student Government Academic Assembly has revamped their Outreach Committee in a joint effort to connect with their fellow classmates and attempt to improve education at Penn State.

"This was established last year but not many students knew about it," said Academic Assembly vice president and Outreach Committee chair, Paul Ricciardi. "Last year it was just a Student Council Caucus."

The committee, which is divided into many different parts, is designed to assist students throughout their Penn State experience, while making sure that more people are aware of Academic Assembly.

The first group deals with the complaints and concerns department, which Ricciardi said is the basic foundation for the Outreach Committee. It is also host to concerns@psu.edu, a new Web site that will answer a broad spectrum of inquiries, ranging from general academic questions dealing with advising to testing procedures and eLion. Also, it will advise on individual problems such as finding finals schedules and transcript information.

"The Web site is working well but not being fully utilized yet, but I am confident that that will change," said Academic Assembly President Loren Filson.

The second group handles the Excellence in Advising and Most Innovative Teacher (MIT) awards. These honors highlight an outstanding professional or faculty advisor and teacher who has excelled in their field of learning. The Outreach Committee will be co-sponsoring this along side departs of the Undergraduate Student Government, the Office of Undergraduate Education, and the Schreyer Institute.

The Outreach Committee will also work with programs such as the Take Your Professor to Lunch Challenge. The group will meet tentatively four times a semester as a way to compare ideas, opinions, projects, and discussion on current campus events.

Other goals for the Outreach Committee this year are nominations for the Advising Awards to beat last year's total of 86 and try to break 100; to better handle student complaints; to make MIT and TYPTL better known on campus and to hold regular Student Council Caucus meetings.

"The Outreach Committee is improved in many ways," Filson said. "We want students to have influence and be informed about Penn State. We want to work with the changing student body at the university."