The Undergraduate Assembly welcomed nine newly elected freshmen members at its weekly meeting Sunday night, where the body discussed three new initiatives.
UA Engineering representative Andrew Staniforth, an Engineering and Wharton sophomore, pitched the idea of developing a consolidated database of study spaces on campus, possibly with a built-in online reservation system. The database would seek to streamline the process of finding and reserving space. PennKey authorization would automatically screen which spaces a student is eligible to use.
College sophomore and UA Communications Director Chris Cruz, brought “UA Tours” to discussion — a program which would send UA representatives to general body meetings of various student groups as liaisons to the UA. This way, all members of a student group could directly interact with the UA, not just its leaders, Cruz explained.
Finally, the UA discussed PennSigns, a proposed UA-sponsored program to make lawn signs more available and affordable for groups looking to market along Locust Walk. With UA funding, the signs could be provided to interested groups for about one dollar or less.
However, the body is still undecided as to whether this should be a UA responsibility, and would need to develop a framework determining which groups would be eligible to purchase the signs. Furthermore, the UA disussed whether it would fund signs for partisan groups in particular.
The Assembly elected College representative and senior Mo Shahin as the representative to the Council of Philadelphia Student Governments, a newly formed body including all schools with a Philadelphia zip code which discusses city-wide issues.
The nine newly elected freshmen UA representatives also made their voices heard in the meeting.
New members have long been valued by the body, Wharton junior and UA Academic Affairs Director Faye Cheng said, because they bring “the freshest ideas.”
UA President and College senior Matt Amalfitano was impressed by the new members’ participation during their first meeting. “Three of the nine freshmen ran for leadership positions,” he said, referring to the CPSG election. “I think that’s a testament to just how passionate they are about Penn, student government and the UA.”
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