Last year, it seemed that Student Union President Brooke Feldman was well on her way to transforming the Union from a student advocacy group that achieved few of its goals to a strong networking tool for students, but her recent promises at Monday’s meeting do not follow on the same track.

Feldman came through on some of her promises. Her decision to connect students to university resources promises to provide real results for real students.

Thus far, the Union has launched a new website providing students with the necessary information to access university resources. Each month, the website will be updated to provide new contributions from university faculty, administrators and fellow students. This month the website instructs organizations on how advertise on campus.

The Union still lacks the power to allocate money – this power is reserved for the Allocations Board – and would be unable to institute some of the lofty goals the General Assembly raised at its first meeting.

The Free Press reported that the General Assembly would try to provide students with T passes, improve the Escort Security service and expand the BU Shuttle service – three issues that the Union clearly cannot change without substantial funding and administrative support.

For the Union to accomplish any of these goals, it would need to wield much greater monetary power. These issues completely undermine Feldman’s more achievable goal of plugging in the average student to a wealth of BU resources.

Thus, Feldman must set a positive example for the new members of the General Assembly and keep them from falling back into the rut of making promises that they simply cant keep.

While the need for a student body advocate will always remain, the Union fell drastically short of this goal under the Marker administration. This semester’ General Assembly is already 70 students strong, and it would be remiss of Feldman not to use its clout to provide realistic, tangible results for students.

We commend Feldman for initially attempting to make the best of the limited power afforded the Union, but it is imperative that she holds steadfast to her original agenda.

The Union needs to pick its battles this semester, or it will surely lose credibility with the students as it so often has in the past.