UA leader presents new five-year plan

The Undergraduate Assembly released Project 2000, its five-year plan for improving the University Sunday night. With the release of the plan, the UA will now turn its attention to short-term goals -- including the implementation of some of the proposals included in Project 2000, according to UA Chairperson and Wharton junior Dan Debicella. But a small faction of the UA representatives still said they questioned the original purposes behind the project. Project 2000 consists of 30 recommendations for improving the University in 11 different areas, Debicella said. Many of the proposals were written by Debicella, but he gave credit to several UA members who also wrote recommendations. Debicella said the project's proposals fall into two categories. "There are a lot of proposals that are basically compilations of talk that has been going around the University a lot lately," he said. "[And] there are a couple of ground-breaking proposals that really haven't been thought of before." The most ground-breaking of these proposals is a new plan to fund the Revlon Center, a campus center originally slated to be built on 36th and Walnut streets, according to Debicella. The recommendation calls for a binding student referendum on a proposed "Campus Center Fee" to be included as a tuition cost. If students pass the referendum, the fee would go into effect, and its proceeds would be used to build the Revlon Center. "If the administration can't come up with the money for the Revlon Center, let the students vote," Debicella said. He added that the Revlon Center proposal is the Project 2000 proposal that he would most like to see implemented. "If [only] one proposal could pass, it would be for a campus center," he said. "It would be to have the administration commit to not using existing buildings as a student center, but to build a new student center." Debicella said Project 2000 represented the culmination of a semester's work. The UA began work on the project at the first meeting of the fall semester. Other major facets of the five-year plan include a recommendation that student advisory boards be created in order to deal with areas such as Dining Services, the Athletic Department and Residential Maintenance. The plan also suggests that University Police officers be made responsible for specific blocks off-campus and that a new proposal for the Revlon Center be created, according to Debicella. He said he did not expect the entire proposal to be adopted by the administration -- even after five years. "I would be thrilled if four years after I graduated, I come back for Homecoming weekend and I see 50 percent of these proposals implemented," he said. "I would be very, very happy if the administration implemented the important proposals that are in here." But some members of the UA said they did not share Debicella's enthusiasm for Project 2000. "I thought it would be much more productive for the UA to take another course and focus on short-term issues that would have an impact on this UA," said UA representative Eric Tienou, a College junior. "I wasn't against Project 2000, I just thought we had better options than Project 2000." UA representative Lance Rogers, a College junior, said he originally voted against the proposal because he disagreed with its basic purpose. "I don't think the UA should be focused around something that has long-term goals, such as Project 2000, and neglects the immediate future, the way Project 2000 did," he said.

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