After heated debate, the Undergraduate Assembly granted Penn Leads the Vote just shy of 500 dollars in contingency funds for Election Day materials.
PLTV’s main sponsor is Fox Leadership, but the group came up short when budgeting for decorations and publicity materials.
The UA has helped PLTV with publicity materials in the past, College senior and PLTV co-Director Pam Putnam explained. The body was granted a similar request for the 2008 election.
“The reason we’re decorating campus is to create a festive atmosphere around Election Day,” Putnam said, so that “no student has an excuse not to vote.”
The UA Budget Committee recommended that the UA cover $459.80 of PLTV’s request, which includes items such as balloons, “I Voted” stickers and signs for campus and polling places, but excludes chalk and walkie-talkies.
UA Budget Committee Chairman and Wharton senior Ryan Houston explained that they felt the chalk seemed “somewhat excessive.” With regards to walkie talkies, “there are probably a lot on campus” and a group such as the Medical Emergency Response Team might be able to lend them out, Houston said.
Members debated whether PLTV’s request fit the last-minute nature of the UA contingency fund. Before approaching the UA, the organization had not approached any other sources for funding beyond Fox Leadership. UA Speaker Pro Tempore and College senior Grant Dubler said few to no funding sources exist for political groups on campus and he felt it appropriate that the UA contingency fund was PLTV’s second stop.
The UA body repeatedly lauded the goals and purpose of PLTV and voted 27 pro, 2 con, and 1 abstention to grant the amount suggested by the UA Budget Committee.
Online syllabi were also discussed. The UA Academic Affairs Committee compiled a list of the several hundred professors who had not yet posted a syllabus for a spring 2011 course and drafted an e-mail to send to each individual professor.
“This has been a priority for the UA and [the Student Committee on Undergraduate Education] for many years,” Academic Affairs Committee Director and Wharton junior Faye Cheng said.
The UA passed the resolution unanimously and hoped to send out the e-mails Monday.
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