The Student Activities Council has a new group of leaders and a new vision.
Penn's largest student government group, which will be responsible for the allocation of approximately $600,000 to various student-run clubs this year, held elections for its executive committee this week.
Wharton sophomore Simon Bland will take over as council chairman, inheriting the position from Wharton senior Latoya Baldwin. Bland will head the group's executive committee, as well as govern the 186 members of the group's general body.
Engineering junior Eduardo Vieira was elected vice chairman, and Wharton junior Michael Hoffman was selected to be the group's new secretary.
College sophomore Naomi Berkowitz, College junior Steven Boyd and College sophomore Nico Rodriquez were also elected to the board. These four will join Engineering juniors Hector Silva and Lisa Toppin, who were elected last fall, and Undergraduate Assembly Treasurer Seth Schreiberg to round out the committee.
The election process consisted of a three-minute prepared statement by the candidates and a three-minute question-and-answer session for each candidate. In the unopposed elections for the vice chairman and secretary positions, however, the elections were merely a formality.
Every candidate for the SAC executive board must have also served on the board of a SAC-funded group for at least one year.
Each member of the board will serve as the liaison between SAC and approximately 20 Penn clubs during his or her term.
And Bland began his term with a bang last night as he presented a long list of goals and priorities to the nine-member executive group.
The first item on the list is improving SAC's external image and its relationship with the groups that the committee funds.
"We are the voice of the students, but at the moment, we're the administration," Bland said. "That's the whole reason I want to get a better image of SAC over the year."
Vieira said he wants the council to be seen as more than just a philanthropy organization.
"We require groups to write SAC funded [on promotional items]. A lot of groups write '$AC,'" Vieira said. "It shows them that they view us as the money-giving body. We want to change that."
Bland cites the lack of attendance and participation in general body meetings as one reason for the often-troubled relationship. To amend this situation, SAC is utilizing its creative side.
The group is considering new options, including a cappella performances to kick off meetings and even a $500 lottery at the end of each meeting to motivate groups to stay for the entire discussion.
Another area of improvement Bland and his board hope to tackle is cost efficiency. Bland said that while some groups are begging for money, others are wasting it.
"There's absolutely no incentive to be financially responsible," he said.
The council's leaders say they hope to resolve this problem by familiarizing themselves with the inner-workings of each group.
In addition to encouraging SAC member groups to be financially responsible, the board is looking to better the members' economic situation by helping them help each other.
The group will work on a collaborative initiative which will aid in the interaction of similar groups with one another. Various peer education groups, performing arts groups and Wharton groups are just a few types of clubs that SAC leaders say could work together to economize.
Additionally, council members cite their Web site as a vehicle for improvement. The group is looking to add photographs of SAC-funded events, general information and contact information for each liaison to the site.
Bland said he is satisfied with this outline of priorities, and he plans to begin implementing changes immediately.
"This is a framework -- now we just have to put the body on the skeleton," Bland said.
