The Social Planning and Events Committee has elected a fresh group of leaders for the 2002-2003 school year.
The group internally elected its executive board last week, which is set to take over the supervision of SPEC's nine sub-committees at the end of the current academic year.
The four-person board will now be comprised of President-elect Lindsay Jaffee, a College junior. In addition, Wharton junior Jason Wiley was elected vice president, College junior Tim Ofak was elected treasurer and College junior Jennifer Toll was elected secretary.
There were six candidates competing for the four spots. The directors of each sub-committee were allotted three ballots for each executive board position. Candidates were permitted to drop down to lower positions during the elections.
Outgoing SPEC President Kevin Meyers, a Wharton senior, said he is confident in the new board's ability to steer the student government body in a positive direction.
"I'm excited about what this committee will be able to do next year," Meyers said in a press release. "I'm confident they will carry SPEC above and beyond the level we have reached this year. Each of them bring diverse experiences to the board."
SPEC, founded in 1990, is one of the six main student government bodies at Penn. The group's mission is to "develop, organize and program campus-wide social and cultural activities for the University community."
And the new president says she hopes to continue this tradition.
"As far as my vision for the next year... there have been so many great events and high attendance this year, I think the board just wants to continue what we've been doing," Jaffee said.
The nine sub-committees which comprise the organization are Art Gallery, Concerts, Connaissance, Film Society, Jazz and Grooves, Special Events, SPEC Sound, SPEC-To Represent Undergraduate Minorities and Spring Fling.
Beyond executive board and the directors of the committees, each of the nine smaller groups is made up of anywhere from 10 to 100 members. Membership in SPEC is open to any enrolled undergraduate.
SPEC's Spring Fling committee is responsible for organizing next weekend's festivities, which kick off on Friday, April 12 and will feature a concert with George Clinton and the P-Funk All Stars, among other groups.
And two of the new board's members are directly responsible for the coordination of the annual event. Both Jaffee and Ofak are currently co-directors of SPEC's Spring Fling committee and have dealt with issues including the effects of the renovations of both Hill Field and the Quadrangle on the Fling celebration.
Additionally, Wiley heads up SPEC-TRUM, and Toll has been involved in Connaissance, the committee which arranged for the appearances of Maya Angelou, Billy Joel and Ben Stein this year and will sponsor Harry Belafonte's appearance this evening.
Meyers applauded the accomplishments of the new board and echoed Jaffee's positive and satisfied sentiment for SPEC's performance this year.
"I think this past year, SPEC in general has done an incredible job in programming and working with outside community members in order to promote and bring to campus worthwhile and fun events," Meyers said in an interview yesterday.
