UA meeting marred by low turnout

Thirteen of the Undergraduate Assembly's 33 members failed to attend its Sunday night meeting. Beleaguered by chronic low attendance at its meetings, the Undergraduate Assembly passed a resolution last April to punish frequently absent members. As a result, last semester's meetings typically had fewer than eight absentees. But the semester started off on the wrong foot Sunday night, as 13 of the UA's 33 members failed to show up for the body's first meeting. UA Chairperson and College junior Noah Bilenker called the meeting to order with only a simple majority -- 17 members -- present. Three more joined the meeting midway through the proceedings. The 20 members in attendance represented the lowest figure since last April, when the UA passed a bylaw that allowed the body to force any member to resign if that member missed three of the weekly meetings in any one term without notifying the Executive Board. Bilenker cited spring rush for fraternities and sororities as the cause of the "notoriously low" attendance. Eighteen of the body's 25 upperclass members are Greek, and nine of them missed the meeting Sunday for rush events. Bilenker added that low attendance at the first meeting of the spring semester is not uncommon because of rush, noting that both he and UA Treasurer and College sophomore Bill Conway missed the body's first meeting of 1997 for that reason. Also, Bilenker said the UA might change the date and time of next week's meeting -- currently scheduled opposite the Super Bowl -- to prevent this week's attendance problems from reoccurring. Bilenker stressed to those in attendance that the UA would have to conduct itself with a sense of urgency this semester because of the number of projects it needs to accomplish before holding elections in late March. "I'd like to reiterate this is a short semester," he said. "There's a lot for us to get accomplished." "We want the next UA to be able to hit the ground running," he added. He explained that the UA's West Philadelphia Committee plans to hold a fair on Locust Walk later this semester to showcase many of the restaurants and other activities available to students outside the confines of the Penn campus. Bilenker also announced the long-awaited re-location of the UA's offices. The body will be forced to close its office in Houston Hall when the facility closes for renovations as part of the Perelman Quadrangle project May 28. The UA will relocate to second-floor offices in the former University Police annex on the 3900 block of Irving Street, next to High Rise South. The building will also house the other branches of undergraduate student government -- the Student Committee on Undergraduate Education, the Nominations and Elections Committee, the Student Activities Council and the Social Planning and Events Committee. Bilenker chose to look at the bright side of an otherwise difficult situation, stressing the possible benefits from the consolidation of the various branches of student government. "It will be an opportunity for a lot of collaboration with other branches of student government" that might not have otherwise occurred, he said. The respective branches of student government had another reason to be enthusiastic at the meeting, as Conway announced a higher budget for the next school year. The UA will receive $1,015,000 from the Office of the Vice Provost for University Life in 1998-99, a 5 percent increase from the $967,000 it received this year. The funding is distributed among the UA, the NEC, SPEC, SCUE, SAC and their beneficiary student groups.

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