With a project headed by one of its officers, the Undergraduate Student Government (USG) Academic Assembly plans to expand the student councils within the colleges and foster a better relationship between the assembly and the councils this semester.

Cathy Neiderer, assembly vice president of programming, said she hopes to boost communication between the councils and to establish a council for the College of Arts and Architecture -- the only college without a student council.

Neiderer said the assembly's main role is to hear and deal with student concerns, which can be heard directly from the councils.

Student councils oversee organizations in each particular college, representing everyone in it and reporting directly to the dean.

Students are most affected by the student councils if they are involved in these organizations within the college, such as the Society of Women Engineers in the College of Engineering.

The better the communication is between the student councils of each college, the better they can function, Neiderer said.

Mike Livingston, president of the Agricultural Student Council, agreed that the communication among councils is lacking. He added that he does not speak with the other councils.

"We all run organizations differently. There may be things we're doing right and things we're doing wrong," said Livingston, adding that it would be beneficial for councils to compare and share their ideas.

Neiderer said she and the assembly plan to accomplish as much of this project by the end of the semester as possible, and the assembly will start contacting the council presidents.

Neiderer said establishing the College of Arts and Architecture council would be a "difficult challenge," because she has to talk to students in the college to find out who is interested in leadership positions in addition to speaking with the dean.

Dick Durst, dean of the College of Arts and Architecture, said he approved of the idea of establishing a student council in the college.

"Anything that better connects our students with what's going on in the university is more than worthwhile," Durst said. He added that he is hopeful for a group of students to express interest in such a project.

Jeff Timmerman, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences vice president, said he is optimistic that teamwork between the councils will improve, especially with the addition of Neiderer as the vice president of programming last fall. He added that last semester was "so chaotic" because of personnel changes that the assembly rarely met and little got done.

"Since she came in, whatever was supposed to be going on is going on," he said.