Members won't seek re-election

More than half of the 33 current Undergraduate Assembly members are not seeking re-election this year. And aside from the five seniors who are graduating, the remainder of the 21 members who have decided not to run again have various reasons for doing so. Wharton junior Eric Leathers currently serves as the UA Budget Committee's chairperson. He has been on the UA since his freshman year but has decided not to run again. "I've accomplished some of the things I set out to accomplish," he said last night. "I wouldn't want to be on the UA if I didn't think I could steer it in the direction I want it to go in." Leathers, who ran for UA Chairperson last spring and lost to current chairperson and College junior Seth Hamalian, said since he does not want to run for chairperson again this year, he does not want to run at all. "I don't think it is a body I want to be a part of," he added. "I don't want to sit by as a member anymore." UA member and Engineering junior Ha Nguyen said she began her term on the UA with vigor and hopefulness, but her expectations have been left unfulfilled. "I wanted to make the UA a strong body that the students would respect," she said. "[But] there's a lot of red tape and playing parliamentary procedure within the body itself and I don't feel the body can get anything done because we can't get organized. "When we held the rally for the VPUL [last December], we didn't get the support we thought we were going to get," she added. "If the body can't get student support, how can it do anything?" Some UA members said they were not seeking re-election because of the time committment involved. "It's my senior year and I have to concentrate on other things, like academics," UA member and Engineering junior Gaurang Shah said. "I am in the [Management and Technology] program and I don't want to make those sacrifices." Shah, who has served one term on the UA, admitted he was "frustrated" by this year's UA. "I've found some things enlightening, but there were some times where I was frustrated and angry at the body," he added. Wharton freshman and UA member Riley McCormack also cited the time committment as reason for not continuing his UA tenure. McCormack also said he is "very surprised" by the "large number of people not running again." Several UA members voiced similar sentiments. And some said they had expected more members of the Coalition for Responsive Student Government, a group begun in December 1992 hoping to improve student government on campus, to campaign again. The Coalition ran a slate of 20 students in last spring's election, 10 of whom won seats on the UA. Only one Coalition member, College sophomore Miae Oh, will be running for re-election this year. "I thought some of those people would be excited enough to run again," Leathers said. "The fact that people who were only there a year got that disillusioned is a little scary and very unfortunate." UA and Coalition member Sarah Manning said she is "disenchanted." "I was excited about the Coalition when I came in because I felt change was in the air and we were going to make it happen," she said. "[But] the aspirations of the Coalition were disbanded when the Coalition was disbanded, when we got into office." But Nguyen said she expected the lack of incumbents on the UA ballot all along. "A lot of people felt the body wasn't capable of doing anything," she said. "There was a lot of negative feeling between members and toward the body itself." Nguyen added that there was a division within the UA this year between "people who wanted to get things done and people who just wanted to put it on their resumes." Manning, a College junior, said the reasons why she and others are not running again should provide the goals for the next UA. "I see the reasons why people were disenchanted," she said. "It's those reasons that should motivate the next group for change."