During its first general body meeting of the spring semester, the Undergraduate Assembly discussed ways of improving its winter airport shuttle service, as well as the possible creation of a new online service to help students with the off-campus housing search.
Among other concerns regarding the current shuttle service, UA members debated whether the program’s current benefits outweigh its low profitability.
College senior and UA Speaker Cynthia Ip said that winter shuttles have not been used to their full capacity because students leave at different times throughout finals week, making it difficult for the UA to coordinate which days would best accommodate students’ schedules.
“It’s not a very profitable or environmental service, to be honest,” Ip said.
College freshman and UA representative Gabe Delaney suggested the adoption of Zimride, a ridesharing network that is currently in use at Stanford University.
Despite some opposition to the shuttle service in general, Engineering and Wharton senior and UA President Tyler Ernst said he is opposed to eliminating the program.
“The [program’s] purpose is not to earn a profit but to provide a service,” he said.
The UA also discussed the possibility of creating a Housing App through PennApps Labs to aid Penn students in the search for off-campus housing.
The idea — which is based on Openhouse, a PennApp created two years ago — is to create a Penn Book Bazaar-like system that will allow students to not only rank landlords but also find subletters.
“We hope to take informal networks that exist at Penn already and open them up so that they can be used for their fullest potential,” said College senior Sam Bieler, director of the UA’s Housing, Sustainability, Facilities Committee.
College junior and UA Treasurer Jake Shuster, however, questioned whether an online landlord ranking service would be valuable for the student body.
“It matters a lot more where you live and what your house looks like rather than who your landlord is,” he said.
While a resolution to amend Penn’s alcohol policy was initially scheduled to be presented to the UA’s general body on Nov. 20, Ernst said the presentation date has been pushed back because of internal deliberations that are underway within the University’s alcohol policy review committee.
Though Ernst declined to provide a firm date for when the new policy will be released, he said the goal of the amendments is to “make it easier and more appealing to register events while maintaining the highest standard that we currently have in place.”
“Frankly, it’s at the top of everyone’s priority list,” he added. “We just want to make sure we do it right.”
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