The Undergraduate Assembly's freshmen have served for less than two months, but the eight new members say that as they learn the ropes, they have already become engaged in a multitude of projects.
The eight freshmen are collaborating on a dining project and helping the upperclassmen on other issues.
College freshman Pierre Gooding said the freshmen UA members were hoping to get Penn's meal plans changed to a point system.
Last year, the UA successfully lobbied to reduce the number of required meals for freshmen from 17 to 9 per week, and for more Dining Dollars with each meal package.
However, Vice President of Business Services Lee Nunery said in September that there are no plans to overhaul Dining Services' all-you-care-to-eat system.
In addition to working on the UA's dining project, Wharton freshman Sean Walker said he has also been talking with Business Services spokeswoman Amy Johnson to get the dryers replaced in DuBois College House and to make laundry payable with PennCash.
And College freshman Amy Gartenlaub said she is conducting research on retail clothing stores in hopes of bringing a new store to the former Spruce Street site of Penn logo apparel shop Steve and Barry's, which closed last spring.
Gartenlaub said she is learning a lot from the upperclassmen, and she loves that all members are "working together to make Penn better."
The UA's freshman members said they have worked through the adjustment period.
"The first few meetings, it was a little confusing, but I am getting the hang of it -- all the freshmen are," College freshman Nick Bobys said. "We are working on a freshman project. It's cool to see how things work and then apply it to our own project."
Gooding said that while he was "still in the process of learning all the rules and regulations... of the UA," he was already working on placing UA suggestion boxes in all the college houses.
Some of the freshmen said that they ran for UA because they were disappointed with their high school student governments and wanted to be a part of a body that worked on actual issues.
Wharton freshman Cynthia Wong said that her high school's student government was ineffective, and she is glad to be a part of the UA since, she said, it actually has a voice and can make changes.
"We get to bring up issues that are important to our class," Wong said. "We are learning a lot... how to make the UA more accountable to the student body."
One way the UA aims to reach out to students is with "UA on the Walk," which would give students the chance to discuss issues with UA members on Locust Walk once a month.
Wong said she was pleased to have the opportunity to talk with administrators about student issues.
"It has been a good experience getting involved really quickly," Walker said. "I am really pleased that we are actually able to affect change on this campus."
Bobys said he enjoys being part of a group that impacts the student body.
"It's a good time, the people are cool and you get to do meaningful stuff," he added.
