With Undergraduate Student Government election season beginning today, the USG Academic Assembly got an early start by electing officers for the upcoming academic year.

The assembly elected D. Josh Troxell (sophomore-chemical engineering) president and Jen Tingo (junior-life science) vice president at its meeting last night. Troxell ran against current assembly Vice President Robyn Ricketts, while Tingo was unopposed in the elections.

Troxell, who currently serves as an assembly senator for the Division of Undergraduate Studies, outlined three areas he would like to see improvement in for the coming year.

Troxell said he would work to improve assembly's relationships with the public, with USG and internally.

"I think leadership is all about relationships," he said.

A revision of the assembly's portion of the USG Web site to provide more information about the legislative body and an increased budget for advertising were two of the suggestions Troxell provided for increasing public awareness of the group.

Troxell, who also serves as diversity special project chair for the assembly, said he would also like to cooperate with the USG president and senate president on issues affecting USG.

He planned to organize a meeting with these student leaders before the end of this academic year.

Troxell said he also hoped the assembly would look at diversity and health services in the upcoming year.

"There's a lot of issues that are very important to students," he said.

Tingo, assembly senator for Eberly College of Science, said she hoped to continue work on issues currently being addressed by assembly.

"We need to have focus on the issues we already started this year," she said.

These issues include diversity in courses and the use of student's social security numbers as ID numbers.

Tingo also highlighted assembly's public relations as an area of concern, citing her own personal experience.

"I myself was a student who didn't know what Academic Assembly was a year ago," she said, adding that it is important to let students know about assembly.

Assembly President Paul Ricciardi said he thought Tingo and Troxell were well-qualified for their positions from their previous experiences with assembly.

Ricciardi said he plans to stay involved with assembly next year as a member of the staff.

"I've enjoyed it," he said. "It's been a learning experience in leadership."

USG President Justin Zartman said he was glad that Troxell was emphasizing cooperation between the different branches of USG.

"That's what really needs to be done to bring the organization back to working for the students," he said.

Troxell said he was looking forward to serving as president in the upcoming year and hoped students would share their ideas and concerns with the assembly.

"I think representing students is one of the best endeavors anyone can take on," he said.