With the passage of two major proposals this week, the Undergraduate Assembly has a new set of accomplishments under its belt.
Sunday night, the organization announced the creation of a new committee on pluralism.
The Pluralism Committee will join the ranks of the UA's six other committees, which include the West Philadelphia, Student Life and Communication committees.
The UA's second accomplishment on Sunday was a proposal to ease the implementation of student ideas for University improvement in areas such as dining. Both plans were approved at the group's weekly meeting.
According to the first proposal, the purpose of the newly formed committee is to "bridge gaps within the University community... by promoting further integration of the campus."
To achieve this goal, the committee will focus on coordinating interactions between student groups including fraternities and sororities, ethnic and cultural groups, athletes, international students, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community members and religious groups.
UA Chairwoman Dana Hork, a College senior, said she believes the creation of a seventh committee is an important step on the road to improving the relations among the diverse groups that comprise Penn's community.
"The UA committee on pluralism is important to our making an institutional commitment within the UA to increase our accountability and responsiveness to pluralism issues," Hork said.
In addition to serving as a link between various student groups on campus, the new committee hopes to foster more direct ties between the groups.
According to the proposal, committee members will achieve this both by "encouraging segments/groups to work together and co-sponsor events" and "raising the profile of issues that affect various segments/groups... on campus."
The new committee will be headed by Engineering junior Gautam Mashettiwar.
In preparation for the presentation of this proposal to the UA on Sunday, Mashettiwar contacted numerous students and student leaders to get their input on the issues that the committee will be tackling.
Hork said that this spring will serve as a test run for the pluralism committee.
"The word I've been using is 'pilot,'" Hork said. "It will be up to next year's executive board to decide whether or not the process worked."
While that committee is being tested out, the UA's other new proposal will be implemented in full force.
In addition to the creation of the new committee, the proposal on Coursework Use for University Consultation was also passed on Sunday night.
The purpose of this idea, which was devised by Engineering sophomore Matthew Lattman, is to make projects that students have completed in class -- and which pertain to the improvement of the University -- available to University offices that have the ability to implement the student ideas.
Through Lattman's proposal, students who have ideas for practical solutions to problems with Student Health Service, Dining Services or other areas of student life will have their voices heard, and Penn administrators will have these ideas readily available to them.
The proposal states that the University should select a "point person" to be the mediator for the exchange of projects between students and administrators. In addition, the UA suggests that students submitting projects should be permitted to remain anonymous if they prefer.
The UA plans to remain involved in this process by following up on each proposal sent to the point person.
