Galen Foulke has got it all wrong. How exactly does USG's attendance at the Association of Big Ten Students conference equate to caring more about the opinions of our fellow Big Ten schools than our own classmates? The fact of the matter is this group of knowledgeable, dedicated student leaders, whose governments are extraordinarily varied in structure, is entirely qualified to comment on student government at Penn State. No one's pretending that ABTS should have a vote in the determination of policy at Penn State, but to ignore their comments is to ignore valuable input from schools quite similar to ours.

Second, Foulke's assertion that his time and money could have been better spent building ties with Council of Commonwealth Student Governments and Association of Residence Hall Students - to the total exclusion of ABTS - is just as farcical. Sure, the U.S. government's primary responsibility is to Americans, but what would happen if it cut off all ties with every other country?

As a conference attendee, I can say from experience that the ABTS weekend was the furthest thing from a "waste of time." The things we learned and the contacts we made will enable USG to serve the students of Penn State better than ever this year - recognized or not.