From lobbying efforts and improving networking to planning future meetings of the Commonwealth Campuses, the Council of Commonwealth Student Governments is working to make promises into realities this semester.

President Kristopher Ankarlo and Vice President Maribeth Collins recently updated the council's progress on platform issues and also responded to recent Penn State events.

CCSG serves to represent the issues of the 12 Penn State commonwealth locations to University Park administration, student government and other organizations.

CCSG's main platform issue this semester was its lobbying efforts in Harrisburg and Washington, D.C.

The council has been working to encourage the student governments of all the Commonwealth Campuses to reach out to their representatives.

Ankarlo said the efforts are going well.

"Student government leaders are going to have a huge impact on all students of Penn State," Collins added.

Because getting issues heard by representatives is a major goal of CCSG, the next monthly meeting of the Commonwealth Campuses will be focused around the issue of lobbying techniques.

Ankarlo said either Tony Wagner, director of Office of Governmental Affairs at Penn State, or Richard DiEugenio, special assistant to the president of the Office of Governmental Affairs, will be speaking about this subject at the Nov. 10 meeting.

"They (CCSG) came to us because they want to have someone talk to them about the do's and don'ts of approaching legislators," Wagner said.

The most recent meeting of commonwealth student leaders included an address by Penn State President Graham Spanier.

After the meeting, Spanier hosted a luncheon for about 130 members of CCSG and representatives from each campus.

"Lunch was an extraordinary opportunity for students and Dr. Spanier to interact on a more personal level," Collins said.

Other platform goals that CCSG has been working on include improving the distribution of the information technology fee among the Commonwealth Campuses and trying to improve networking between campuses by creating Web sites for each of the commonwealth student governments.

Ankarlo also took time to address the latest news at Penn State.

"CCSG stands with Justin Zartman's freedom of speech and his authority to speak on behalf of the students who elected him," Ankarlo said in response to the Undergraduate Student Government Senate's censor of Zartman last week.

Another issue that Ankarlo responded to was the recent publication of Spanier's salary.

"I understand he makes more money than most Big 10 presidents, but at the same time, Penn State is a massive university and his job is massive. People should be worrying about more important things at this university," he said.