Council to allocate more seats for undergrad reps

In an effort to equalize representation of undergraduate and graduate students, the University Council's Steering Committee has recommended that the Undergraduate Assembly receive five more Council seats next year. According to UA Chairperson Dan Debicella, a Wharton sophomore, the Steering Committee's recommendation will be presented to the entire Council for a vote next month, as part of ongoing Council bylaw revisions. If approved, the additional seats will not be awarded to the UA until October. However, Debicella said he does not think there will be any problems getting final approval for the additional seats. "I think the faculty wants to hear more student input," he said. The UA allocated its new seats Sunday night: one for the UA vice chairperson, one for the UA treasurer, one for an additional at-large UA representative, one for the UA's Ivy Council representative and one for the United Minorities Council. "The University Council is a forum for discussion -- an advisory body to the president and provost," Debicella said. "No matter who got the five seats, I am so happy to increase representation by 50 percent because that just means we have that much louder of a voice on campus." The UA chairperson has given the UMC a Council seat in previous years, incoming UMC vice chairperson Jenny Ho said. But Debicella said this practice was discovered to be in violation of the Council's constitution this year. "It's good that this year we were finally able to officially give them [a seat]," Debicella said. Ho agreed. "It's very comforting to know that we finally have a permanent spot on the University Council," the Wharton junior said."The permanent seat is important because the Council and the UA are recognizing the importance of the minority community, and their role within the mainstream." Incoming UMC Chairperson Liz Melendez, a College junior, voiced similar sentiments. "The precedent has been set that for the past four years, the UMC had a seat on the University Council," she said. "As unofficial as it may have been, the UA still felt there was a need for that person to be on [University] Council. "I'm very relieved that it's official. I went in there arguing for the UMC seat, and I'm not going to take away anyone else's right to a seat," Melendez added. "I'm confident the UA made the right decision." But UA representative Dan Schorr characterized the decision as "absolutely undemocratic," likening it to giving minority groups automatic congressional seats. "The whole point of representative government is that candidates run on issues and students choose who they want to represent them," the College junior and Daily Pennsylvanian columnist said. "You shouldn't give out seats based on who you want to be represented, because that undermines the whole concept of representation," he added. "Basic democracy should be what the UA advocates -- there's no view that's so important that they should be guaranteed a spot on an elected body every year." Schorr said the 14 votes needed to approve apportionment of the new seats were finally received on the "sixth or seventh ballot" at Sunday night's meeting. College sophomore and UA representative Lance Rogers, who also serves as vice president of Ivy Council -- a group of Ivy League student government representatives -- voted for the proposed allocation. "I don't see any reason why the UMC shouldn't have a seat," he said. "There's a lot of controversy that the UMC doesn't represent everybody, but they represent a lot of the people. "It's important that they have a voice within the University," Rogers added. "True, they don't represent everybody, but in talking with their [incoming] chair, I realized they are willing to represent more than they are now -- they are open to new ideas." Rogers also said he is pleased with the decision to extend a Council seat to Ivy Council, a move he sees as "legitimizing [Ivy] Council and bringing it promise." Melendez will serve as the UMC's University Council representative. "I just want to keep insuring that the voice of students of color, in particular, is heard and that concerns that may arise within the minority community will be addressed by the University Council," she said. "In light of the issues of race relations that are prevalent at the moment, I think that it's crucial that the [UMC] chair be on [University] Council, in order to advise the president and provost on how to remedy some of these problems, " Melendez added. She said the recruitment and retention of faculty members of color will be one of her top priorities as the UMC's University Council representative this fall. Outgoing UMC Chairperson Jun Bang, a College senior, could not be reached for comment Sunday night. In the past, Bang attended Council meetings and "helped enlighten the Council as to how their decisions would affect the minority community," Ho said. "Jun did a lot to influence this," she added. "It was one of the last things she wanted to accomplish before her term was over."

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