COLUMN: Council's lapse in democracy

From Steve Schorr's, "Shoot First, Ask Questions Later," Fall '98 From Steve Schorr's, "Shoot First, Ask Questions Later," Fall '98In an attempt to become the next Senior Class Board president, Clive Correia and Sarah Gleit each collected more than 500 signatures and then stood outside the ballot box for two consecutive days seeking votes. Gleit eventually prevailed by a mere 25 votes. After the fraternities ran a slate last year to the UA which ultimately decided to allocate $30,000 to the InterFraternity Council, the Student Activities Council supported a referendum to overturn the decision and give the money to SAC. The 33 percent voter turnout was by far the highest for a referendum in years. These are all examples of Penn's representative democracy at work. Various students have wanted their ideas and their goals realized, and have had to work hard to gain the consent of the student body. The one blemish to this record occurred November 12, when the various faculty, staff, administrative and student members of University Council decided to amend the by-laws which previously required that all members win a general election in their constituency. Instead, another undergraduate representative would be appointed -- the president of the United Minorities Council. Apparently, the benefits of representative democracy escaped Council members. Tuesday's departure of both Latino groups from the United Minorities Council emphasizes why this decision was such a mistake. Supporters of the automatic seat claimed that someone must represent minority students. But do minority students have such similar opinions that they can be represented by one person? Leaders of the UMC frequently state that they don't claim to represent all minorities. But hopefully they represent enough to warrant an appointed position on an otherwise democratically elected body. In explaining ACELA's and MeCha's decision to leave the UMC, MeCha Vice President Jonathan Cantu stated, "We as Latinos are the best representatives of Latino issues. By remaining in the UMC, we were allowing the administration to see all minority issues as a big lump" (The Daily Pennsylvanian, 4/15/98). One of the only stated objectives of the UMC has been the increased recruitment and retention of minorities. But with both Latino groups gone, Asian groups now actually are the majority of the UMC. Can the Asian groups carry on the fight? If programs were enacted to equalize the percentage of students at Penn with those of the general population, Asians would be the most severely hurt. Currently, Asians are the only over-represented group at Penn. Yes, whites actually are underrepresented. According to the 1994 U.S. Department of Commerce's Bureau of the Census and the registrar's undergraduate data, whites make up 75.2 percent of the U.S. population, but only 64.1 percent of the undergraduates at Penn. Asians on the other hand, make up 3 percent of the U.S. population but 17.1 percent of Penn undergraduates. These problems with representation show exactly why elections are so crucial. When the UA voted down a proposal to fund the IFC last year, the IFC's members weren't forced to secede from the rest of the student population represented by the UA. Instead, they supported the candidacy of members who would change student government at Penn. And when members of the Student Activities Council weren't satisfied with the decisions of the new UA, they too weren't forced to secede from the rest of the undergraduate population. Instead, they were able to appeal directly to the students in a campus-wide referendum. But when the University Council decides to appoint an undergraduate to speak for minorities, there is nothing for the minorities who dissent to do -- except claim that the UMC doesn't represent them. Those appeals have fallen on deaf ears at Council, as the UMC chairperson is still expected to give the minority viewpoint on a variety of issues. Anyone who thinks that minorities need an appointed seat because they would have trouble winning a campus-wide election needs to look no further than the winners of the senior honor awards for the past two classes, elected by the senior class. Three of the four male winners were members of an ethnic group represented by the UMC. Recent events demonstrated that for University Council to truly be satisfied that it is hearing the minority viewpoint, it will have to add a seat for a Latino member and should probably have separate seats for African-Americans, Asians and Native Americans. But what if other groups don't feel represented? Are groups like the IFC, SAC, PAC or NOW also entitled to seats? Communications Professor Larry Gross, in expressing support for the UMC seat last November, said he would be more than willing to hear from other groups who want an appointed seat. But why would Gross help decide who represents undergraduates? When students ran for seats on the UA and Council, they had to appeal to their classmates in order to gain the privilege of representing them. But when the UMC wanted to represent a portion of the undergraduates, faculty members like Gross and other staff members and graduate students gave them approval. Undergraduates should be the only people determining undergraduate representation. University Council must vote to remove the UMC's automatic seat. Unfortunately, such a decision would cause a great deal of hostility, and thus nobody would expect such an action to be taken under normal circumstances. But there is cause for hope. Newly elected UA Chairperson Bill Conway made a bold move this week by traveling to City Council to testify in favor of the vending ordinance less than 10 hours after winning the election. Though he spoke in front of several graduate students who held up posters with the word "LIE" virtually any time Penn administrators opened their mouths, he strongly stated what he knew was in the best interests of the student body. Though Conway has not publicly expressed an opinion on the UMC seat, it is leadership like this that may once again make University Council a democratically elected body. It is only through elections that representation can justly be claimed.