UA starts term with near-full attendance

The new Undergraduate Assembly got off to a positive start Monday night as 23 out of its 24 members attended the body's first weekly meeting, much of which was spent electing members to several committees. Despite a close race for chairperson more than a week ago between Zeta Beta Tau brother Jeremy Katz and Phi Kappa Psi's Bill Conway -- which left fears that the body, with 15 members in the two fraternities, would be divided along fraternity lines -- new UA Chairperson Conway said he did not detect any problems at the meeting. "Ever since the transition meeting, I've become even more confident about the talents and abilities of the body," said the College sophomore. "I don't foresee any problems with divisiveness, and I do see a lot of possibility." The majority of the hour-long meeting was spent electing members to a variety of both UA committees and Ivy and University councils. After a brief round of introductions, College sophomore and newly elected Vice Chairperson Michael Bassik asked assembly members to sign up for one of the four UA committees: student life, facilities, West Philadelphia or Greek life. Bassik also noted that the executive board had debated and decided to eliminate its Academic Committee because they felt it was working against the mission of the Student Committee on Undergraduate Education, which works on academic issues such as tenure and curriculum changes and provides an undergraduate voice on academic policy. The decision was "a vote of confidence in SCUE," he said. SCUE Chairperson Rachael Goldfarb said that the group "is truly appreciative of the UA's vote of confidence in our efforts to better undergraduate education." "Bill Conway has been supportive of SCUE's efforts, and SCUE is willing to listen to any academic concerns of his or the UA body," the College junior added. College freshman and newly-elected Treasurer Jonathan Glick then asked for nominations for the two open seats on the UA's budget committee. The committee analyzes every budget request brought before the UA during the year and is also responsible for distributing the UA's more than $1,000,000 budget to all student groups, according to Glick. Conway, a College sophomore and former UA treasurer, described the budget committee seats as "probably the most powerful positions on the UA." Engineering freshman Theo LeCompte, College juniors Jeremy Katz and Samara Barend and College freshman Melanie Liebner were all nominated for the committee. Katz and LeCompte were the only ones to give brief speeches about their plans for the committee, however, as Barend -- a Daily Pennsylvanian columnist -- declined the nomination and Liebner did not attend the meeting. Katz said he wants to look into the way the Student Activities Council allocates money, noting that SAC is "a bunch of bleeding hearts that give money away to things that no one on this campus cares about." The UA allocates nearly $500,000 of its annual budget to SAC. "We're giving out money, and we don't know where it's going," Katz explained. LeCompte said a desire to become more involved in the UA accounted for his reason for wanting to be on the Budget Committee. The assembly then elected three members to serve as the University's representatives to the Ivy Council. The Ivy Council serves as a forum for students from all eight Ivy League schools to talk about a variety of issues, Barend explained. College freshmen Alexander Tisch, John Buchanan and Andrew Mandelbaum; Wharton freshmen Aaron Karo and Rishi Bajaj; and Engineering freshman Malhar Saraiya were all nominated, with Saraiya, Bajaj and Tisch winning seats on Council. The body then nominated and elected Karo to the one remaining UA seat on the University Council. Also nominated were College sophomore Mike Silver, who declined, LeCompte, Buchanan and Mandelbaum. Prior to the election, Conway explained the importance of Council meetings, noting that they are attended by University President Judith Rodin, Interim Provost Michael Wachter and other campus leaders. "Two out of every three meetings will be stuff we don't care about like faculty pension plans," Conway said. "But one out of every three will be very important. One time we got to discuss the possibility of Penn police carrying around semi-automatic weapons -- it was very cool." The UA has 15 Council seats, and following Karo's election, Conway urged all seat holders to attend meetings. "If people have class conflicts, we do have the power to remove you," Conway said. "We'd better have 15 people there or damn close to it."