The 21-member Vice President's Cabinet of Student Leaders (COSL) was recently created in the wake of the infamous College Republican Halloween party.

The group was formed by Penn State Vice President for Student Affairs Vicky Triponey to facilitate dialogue between differing viewpoints on campus, and replaces the Elected Student Leaders board representing student government and greek organizations.

This expanded group, which has the ear of our advocate within the administration, is a step in the right direction. However, many issues with the new board must be addressed.

First, the formation of COSL does nothing to prevent a repeat of the problem it is meant to avoid. The dispute between the College Republicans and Black Caucus sparked by Brian Battaglia's controversial Halloween party is cited by Triponey as the reason she formed the cabinet.

However, COSL does not have any representation from the College Republicans. Exclusion of any viewpoint is wrong. A seat should be reserved on this board for a leader of the College Republicans or another Republican student group. Giving Black Caucus a privileged voice in ideological forums such as COSL does nothing to foster understanding on campus.

The lack of an opposing viewpoint on such a contentious campus issue also brings to light the problem of how groups get selected for the cabinet. Penn State has more than 500 clubs and organizations, but COSL has 21 positions. Triponey consulted faculty and students to see which groups they believe best represent the entire campus and selected the cabinet based on that.

However, this selection system seems too arbitrary. An unscientific public opinion poll is not the way to select a campus-wide group to help foster understanding among members of a diverse student body. Specific criteria for membership should be defined and publicly disseminated. Proof of the need for a more exact selection process lies in the fact that the system obviously failed in its purpose. It omitted conservative groups, while giving Allies, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and allied communities, and Black Caucus a forum to argue.

A system that selects groups that consistently fall on the same side of issues at Penn State obviously must be fixed.