UA REFORM: Fourth in a series: Schorr, Nadel combine plan; Debicella's proposal rebuffed

Only a week after releasing separate plans for reforming the University's student government, College junior Mike Nadel and College senior Dan Schorr have reconciled their differences and published one united constitutional plan. And in reform meetings this weekend, other students said they disagreed with the major points of Undergraduate Assembly Chairperson and Wharton junior Dan Debicella's plan. But last night Debicella and Nadel, who is a member of the Student Activities Council Finance committee and a Daily Pennsylvanian columnist, said they were working on a compromise and hoped to have one plan on the ballot in April. Schorr, a UA representative, said the revised proposal would retain Nadel's name for the new student government -- Undergraduate Senate. But he added that SAC would continue to exist under the new plan -- an idea which Nadel at first did not support. "We wanted SAC as a check to ensure that groups don't get funding cut off completely," Nadel said. But SAC would lose almost all of its jurisdiction over student activity funding, he said. Most of its duties would consist of recognizing and organizing student activity groups. SAC could only overturn Undergraduate Senate cuts in activity budgets, according to Nadel. Nadel and Schorr support giving the Senate control over finances because they say that funds should be controlled by elected officials. The other elements of the plan are almost identical to the proposals Schorr and Nadel released last week, Schorr said. At a reform meeting on Friday afternoon, Debicella presented his proposals,which dealt mostly with electoral reform. Debicella said his plans represented an answer to the problems facing student government. But he added that he was going to work on a compromise with Schorr and Nadel. "The way to raise the quality of people on the UA is through electoral reform," he said. "But the key is that everybody be willing to compromise." Nadel and Schorr said they were only willing to compromise to a certain extent. "Dan [Debicella] wants us to compromise on the principle of having an open, democratic and solidified government," Schorr said. "Those are principles that we don't feel we should compromise on."

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