UA to focus on Revlon, VPUL concerns

The Undergraduate Assembly held its first meeting of the semester Sunday night and brainstormed about issues involving student life, campus and facilities, and budget and finance. And through these and other discussions, the UA agenda for the upcoming semester has begun to take shape. UA Chairperson Seth Hamalian said his group will emphasize several issues this semester. "We really need to move forward with the [Vice Provost for University Life] issue and the Revlon [Center] issue," the College junior said Sunday night. The UA's Student Life Committee will tackle the group's primary objectives, Committee Chairperson and College sophomore Miae Oh said last night. "We want to research into various VPUL issues and how we can make the various organizations under VPUL better," she said. "And Revlon is such a toss-up right now. It's a very difficult issue." Oh added that because the building of the Revlon Center is a "long term" issue, the UA plans to involve the freshmen members in preparing for future discussion of the issue. The Campus and Facilities committee will also concentrate on the Revlon Center, said College sophomore and committee member Lance Rogers. "We want to get a feel of how students feel about the Revlon Center," he said. "We're concerned with what different things are going to be put in the Revlon Center with respect to what students need in a student center." Rogers added that the committee is also discussing several other campus issues. "We're concerned about safety issues and we're trying to get more blue light telephones on campus," he said. "We're also looking into mail service on campus." The Budget and Finance Committee is planning to release a report discussing the budgets of Residential Living and Dining Services in mid-February, committee member and Wharton sophomore Daniel Debicella said. "The project is a review of the?budgets to see if there are any areas where students feel there is too little or too much money being spent on something," he said. "We hope it will help the Dining Services and Residential Living departments to cut costs and improve services. "Some form of the savings could then hopefully be passed on to the students," Debicella added. The committee hopes to conduct student polls and finalize research before presenting the proposal. Rogers, who also serves as the UA Communications Director, said the UA will attempt to create a better relationship between itself and the student body throughout this semester. "My hope?is to launch a comprehensive communications strategy that will better connect the student body with their student government," he said. "We're a tremendous resource that they should take advantage of." In the course of the semester, the UA will also assess its involvement with the Ivy Council, an organization made up of Ivy League student government leaders, Rogers said. "We will be determining exactly what role Ivy Council will be playing with the UA and how interactive the UA will be with Ivy Council," he added.