As the next batch of Undergraduate Student Government (USG) executives, senators and assembly members begin their terms in office, it's important they start off strong. One way they can do this is by learning from the past.

Plagued by indecision and in- fighting, all three branches of USG suffered from inaction this year.

USG President Rubina Javeri and Vice President Kris Ankarlo say they accomplished three of their four platform goals. This isn't really the case.

One of their main platform goals, the proposed off-campus student union, will supposedly be in full operation by the fall. The union plans to provide legal help for students seeking apartment contracts, publicize employment opportunities and register voters. But Javeri and Ankarlo have never made it clear how the union will do these things. All they have done for this platform goal is appoint people to positions.

Javeri's goal to expand HUB-Robeson Center eatery hours resulted in added hours only to Barney's convenience store. No other eatery hours were extended.

We are happy that students can now use the ANGEL Course Management System to schedule appointments with University Health Services, but the program is only in the pilot stage. There is no guarantee it will continue.

Platform goals, however, are only meant to be a blueprint for an administration. The fact that Javeri and Ankarlo weren't successful in accomplishing all of their goals does not mean they were ineffectual leaders.

But the two failed the students in other ways. They did virtually nothing as Penn State continued to raise tuition this year. Though Javeri and Ankarlo could not have stopped this from happening, they should have been more vigilant in lobbying representatives and voicing student outrage. They also shied away from taking a stance on other student-centered issues, such as the proposed cameras on Beaver Avenue.

USG Senate and Academic Assembly seemed to follow Javeri and Ankarlo's wishy-washy lead.

This semester, the Senate passed only one piece of legislation that was not internally related. It spent the rest of the time attempting to change its bylaws and embroiled in controversy with USG Supreme Court for violating its own constitution. These efforts used most of the Senate's energies, but neither had even the potential to affect students.

The assembly's major accomplishment this year was creating Teacher Tributes, a program that allows students to send thank you letters to their professors over the Web. Couldn't the assembly have devoted its time to something actually vital to students?

The new members of USG need to keep one thing in mind -- the students. Some amount of internal issues are necessary. But in the next term, USG needs to keep these to a minimum if it's truly going to be a representative body.