In an effort to assist students it considers "disempowered and decentralized," Safeguard Old State (SOS) has announced a campaign that kicks off this week and will require its members to meet individually with all 665 groups on campus.

The No Student Left Behind campaign, which a press release calls "the most extensive campaign in the history of student representation" at Penn State, will be used to gauge student opinion and has a deadline of March 31.

"The way I look at it, there's about four and a half months of school time," SOS executive director Gavin Keirans said. "It seems ambitious, but we already have it set up so that each one of our members takes on 30 to 40 different student groups."

SOS is "a coalition of Penn Staters of all ages, [who] want to foster and preserve a truly student-centered Penn State for generations to come," according to its Web site, www.safeguardoldstate.org. The on-campus organization's Web site also hosts a variety of blogs, which include "The Borough Blog" and "The Sentinel Blog."

By meeting with each group, SOS hopes to encourage both the University Park Undergraduate Association (UPUA) and the Student Programming Association to "establish a course of action that will be in the best interest of students," according to the press release.

Keirans said SOS will update its Web site with the outcome of every meeting in an attempt to keep the campaign public and transparent. A list of the 10 questions every organization will be asked will also be posted on the Web site, he said.

"The only thing that can come out of this is positive information," he said. "It's not just about helping out SOS; it's about helping out Penn State as a whole."

Specifically, SOS hopes its campaign will encourage UPUA to reform its current status as an advocacy group to a more independent, "powerful" student government, according to the press release.

"I think it's definitely a good initiative," UPUA President Hillary Lewis said. "It's going to take a lot of hard work, and I'd like to see the report when it's finished. I'm sure they'll find some very interesting things out."

Joe Veltre, SOS student rights director, said he hopes the campaign will be an improvement on UPUA's I'm Pissed About THIS... initiative, which surveys students about their problems with the university and student-related issues.

"UPUA had a great idea ... but they really didn't do anything from it," Veltre said. "We wanted to take it a step further and figure out what the whole student body is thinking."

Among the groups on campus is the Sculpture Club, of which Cristin Millett is the adviser. Millett said if the Sculpture Club was contacted by SOS, her organization would "absolutely" send a representative to meet with SOS, adding that, thus far, the university has done "nothing" for her group because it's new.

"I think it's ambitious," she said. "I would say that our organization is looking for funding basically to improve safety equipment ... specifically getting shows for the students, getting field trips for the students and also to bring in visiting artists to give lectures and also to support exhibitions for members of the club."