The Student Union passed a resolution on Nov. 16 to petition for membership in the Boston Intercollegiate Government (BIG) as the eighth school in a consortium of student governments in the Boston area.Other schools include Boston College, Boston University, Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Suffolk University, Bentley and Northeastern.

BIG's two-part mission, established in April of 2003, is to share its voice in local, state and national political issues that affect college students, and to share ideas between different student governments in terms of the varying issues and projects on their campuses.

Student Union President Joshua Brandfon '05 and Vice President Kenneth Gantz '04 will be the BIG Brandeis representatives upon approval of the entrance petition. Brandfon said that by having a group of Boston students together, it helps send a message to governments at all levels.

"They represent over 130,000 students in and around Boston. It is a powerful group," Brandfon said.

Brandfon also said that one of the main visions of the group is to make sure that the voice of the students is one that politicians take seriously.

"We are excited to be involved and hopefully it will put us in touch with other college campuses around the area," Brandfon said.

David Bresler '04, Executive Vice President of the student government at Boston University, came up with the idea of BIG earlier this year. He felt that the students in colleges in the Boston area were not being represented because most were not registered to vote.

Bresler said that it was easy to get different groups to join BIG because at their first meeting, they invited the Boston mayor, Thomas Menino.

One project they have been working on includes keeping the late night MBTA bus service known as the "Night Owl." Another dealt with meeting with Congressman John Tierney, D-Mass., to contribute ideas to the College Affordability legislation.

"Everything we told him is part of the legislation," Bresler said.

Bresler said that BIG is also a way of sharing ideas and resources because different schools often have the same interests.

"We are all fighting over the same issues," Bresler said.

Bresler also added that the student governments of the different schools communicate with each other to help structure different programs and events that have already been set up at other universities.

Bresler said that having Brandeis would play a very important role BIG. He added that Brandeis is a large and prestigious school, and that people notice that. Having religious ties and being located outside of the city limits of Boston, gives the organization a different perspective, he concluded.

In the future, BIG is hoping to obtain joint funding between the schools to form alliances for large events. They also hope to get students to register to vote in Boston. Bresler pointed out that students might be hesitant to register to vote in Massachusetts as opposed to their home state, but said that students need to consider which issues affect them more.

"I personally feel that students should be voting in the city because these issues are affecting their life more," Bresler said. "But if you feel that you should vote in your home state that is great."

Bresler said that in order to get student interests out there it is important to have voices of large groups of students.

"We want to be able to advocate by having big numbers of students," Bresler said.