COLUMN: Get involved with campus issues

Noah Bilenker, Guest Columnist Noah Bilenker, Guest ColumnistRight about now, you may be looking at the byline and wondering what the Undergraduate Assembly has to do with you. What's worse is that you may not even know that you are a member. That's right. Every undergraduate is a member of the UA. It is in our constitution, but is it just a clichZ? I like to think it is no clichZ, but it probably is. However, as a member, you can join committees, attend meetings or at least, vote for representatives. Unfortunately, few even vote. If you don't go out and vote in a student election where everyone is automatically registered and voting occurs on the way to food, why would you go out of your way to vote in state and national elections? A university founded by Benjamin Franklin should be the best place to learn and practice democracy. However, until undergraduates vote and participate, and, in all fairness, the UA gives more of a reason to vote, the undergraduate population will continue to allow others to decide how to spend our money and set our rules without our input. As everything stands, democracy at this school is the clichZ. The prescence of democracy on this campus is in a downward spiral. When the student body fails to vote and participate, the powers-that-be fail to recognize the authority of the undergraduate representative body. That makes it tough for us to do our job and gives students less of a reason to get involved -- thus perpetuating the spiral. Recent UAs have made concerted efforts to curb this. They attempted to involve more students in this student senate and to turn this clichZ into a reality. But even moving meetings to a central location -- upstairs at Chats -- at a convenient time for most students -- 9 p.m. on Sundays -- hasn't brought more of us to meetings. Why not? This is a crucial year for Penn, and the current issues have been building up for several years. A lot is going on. This is our greatest chance to make an impact. If there is any time during this decade for students to get involved with the UA, now is the time. Sansom Common broke ground this summer, around the same time that the University City Special Services District was unveiled. Retail ventures that can shape the entire neighborhood are unfolding. Also, if we slack off this year, we may wake up to find dining and residential life run by outside companies with no direct responsibility to students. We have to at least be in on the decision. Plus, with Irvine Auditorium closed this year and Houston Hall closing next year, we need to make sure that all displaced student groups have a place to go, both temporarily and in the new Perelman Quad. Surveys on recreation, dining and residential life are producing final reports this year. What will they mean for students, and how will they be implemented? This is a vital time for you to go out and work with your representatives. With all that is going on now, you can help shape the policy that will not only affect your time here, but the time your kids will have here, too, in 25 or 30 years. Heavy stuff, huh? A little skeptical? What can the UA do about all this? We can do a lot if we have student support. The 24-hour diner opening on campus within the next few months is coming because students responded to a survey put out by Engineering senior John Seitz and College senior Meredith Hertz, both UA members. Students spoke. They said, "This is a priority." Now, we're getting a diner. It is the time to decide. What else is a priority? With little student support, the UA has initiated the idea of McClelland Marketplace and the seven and twelve meals-a-week plans, among other projects. However, those are nothing compared to the potential of the collective undergraduate voice. We need to affect what goes on here on a larger scale. But for that, we need participation on a larger scale, too. There are many ways that students can participate. As a member of the UA, we encourage you to attend meetings. The meetings are Sunday nights at 9 p.m., upstairs at Chats, starting September 14. There will be posters throughout the dining halls, Chats, and McClelland, reminding you and outlining the key issues of the agenda. If a specific issue never appears, help shape our agenda. Let us know at 898-8908 or ua@dolphin.upenn.edu, or come to the meeting and express it at Open Floor Time. You can also join a committee. They are listed on our World Wide Web page (http://dolphin.upenn.edu/~ua). Use the Web page to find a representative to tell at the very least. Apply for an NEC committee; join a UA committee; come to meetings; vote for representatives; help shape our agenda; help shape the University's agenda. Cynicism will never help make the UA work better for you.