SAC exec board looks to simplify process

The Student Activities Council, which supervises and allocates funds for over 200 student groups on campus, elected a new board Thursday.

College junior and former SAC secretary Phil Gommels will replace Wharton senior Omar Vasquez as Chairman of SAC.

Incoming SAC executive committee members include College junior Neha Sharma, Engineering junior Kusha Tavakoli, and Wharton junior and former Vice Chair Varun Sureka.

Each member of the executive board is the liaison for about 25 different groups.

"They're excited and motivated," Gommels said. "It should be a great board this year."

Sureka added that the board covers an array of extra-curricular and academic interests.

"I think it's always really valuable to have people coming from diverse backgrounds," Sureka said.

He also added that members of the executive board are active in the Penn community and aware of what groups actually do.

The new board already has plans in store for the upcoming year.

They plan to make the current student group funding standards and guidelines easier to understand and more fair.

This includes working with individual groups to allocate the SAC budget as opposed to setting a fixed sum for different subsets of groups.

SAC's budget, which amounts to around $600,000, comes from the Undergraduate Assembly's total student government funds.

All SAC-recognized campus organizations submit a detailed budget every spring and are interviewed by the executive committee, who then allocate a specific amount of money to each group.

SAC also plans to update their Web site and make it easier to navigate.

Currently, the SAC Web site has not been significantly updated since last year.

Groups will have the ability to interact with other groups and their respective liaisons online.

"It will hopefully make life a lot easier between parties," Sureka said.

Student groups will also be able to sign up for meetings online and log any difficulties.

Furthermore, an online evaluation system may be created in order to allow groups to voice opinions and receive feedback.

Outgoing SAC executive board members include Wharton junior Craig Cohen and College junior Courtney Doyle.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.