UA founds Outreach Committee

In an effort to make student government less "narrow-minded," the Undergraduate Assembly this month established an Outreach Committee to connect the UA with freshmen, student leaders and 55 student groups campus-wide, UA Chairperson Jeff Lichtman said last week. The new committee, which aims "to find a way to get to students," is comprised of almost half of the 23 current UA members said Lichtman, a College senior. Committee members will attend all freshman floor meetings organized by residential advisors in order to introduce freshmen to the UA. UA representatives will try to "get more freshmen to run for UA," Outreach Committee member and College sophomore Dan Kim said yesterday. The UA has invited student leaders to attend a reception on September 17 to create a link among various groups at the University. "Everyone has their own personal agenda," said Michelle Falkoff, Outreach Committee member and UA Public Relations Committee chairperson. "[We want them to] find ways to work together. A lot [of efforts] could be coordinated." During the next few weeks, all UA members will be responsible for attending a meeting of two or three different student organizations and noting the individual concerns of those groups. In this way, Lichtman said, the UA will be able to directly focus on the concerns of student leaders. "We want to be able to help other student groups and get feedback," said Kim, who will attend meetings of Students Together Against Acquaintance Rape and the Korean Student Union. "It is definitely feasible [that UA members will be enthusiastic about the new committee] because after going to a lot of meetings at the beginning, [they will] be able to focus on groups' needs," Lichtman said. Lichtman said that too often students and administrators think the UA is ineffective. He said he hopes the Outreach Committee will add to the credibility and respect of the UA. "We are hoping that people and groups are going to start looking at the UA more favorably," Lichtman said. During this school year, the UA will also concentrate on maintaining need-blind admissions at the University and heightening awareness of Judicial Inquiry Office procedures, Lichtman said. Lichtman said that the elimination of need-blind admissions would "enhance the separation between upper class and lower class [at the University]." "[We will] try to get the University to publicly state that for X amount of years the administration will protect need-blind admissions," Lichtman said. Lichtman, who is a member of the JIO Advisory Board, also hopes to make students less afraid of the JIO system. Ninety-five percent of JIO cases are settled before they are brought in front of the board, Lichtman said. He said this shows not that the system works, but that people are afraid to have a hearing. He hopes to publicize the punishments recommended by the JIO Advisory Board to inform students of the probable outcome of hearings so that students go into the process with "more information and wider eyes."