Freshmen concerned about whether their future student-government representatives are informed need not worry.
A five-question quiz given to freshman Undergraduate Assembly candidates by The Daily Pennsylvanian has revealed that many of them have solid basic knowledge about student government.
Out of the 13 students tested, all but one -- College freshman Jelena Djordjevic -- aced "Who is the president of the University?" and most of them were able to name at least two items on this year's UA agenda.
Everyone was able to name two student-government groups in addition to the Nominations and Elections Committee.
College freshmen Wilson Tong and Bing Chen, Engineering freshman Eric Snyder and Wharton freshman Jeremy Cohn got all five questions right.
College freshman Ben Cirlin received the lowest score , answering only two questions completely correctly.
He said that he had not been able to attend the introductory meeting for UA candidates and missed out on some of the preliminary information.
Many of the candidates failed to answer "Who is the chair of the Undergraduate Assembly?" correctly.
"Wow ... I feel bad about this one ... but she's really nice," wrote College freshman Erica Evans.
"Isn't it Rachel something?" asked Engineering freshman Jay Patel.
"Is it Beth?" Wharton freshman Ilyssa Coghlan said.
Even though College freshman Hayling Price didn't know UA Chairwoman Rachel Fersh's first name either, he said that he's still feeling confident.
Price said that he found the questions reasonable and that candidates should know the answers to them.
"My [student] mentor is on the UA. Had I not had that exposure, I might not have been able to ... answer all of the questions," said College freshman Bing Chen, who added that the quiz was not what he expected.
Most of the students who successfully listed items on the UA agenda had either read the column by Fersh that was published in the DP on Sept. 19 or had attended Pennacle, a student-government retreat that took place before classes started.
However, Cohn, who has attended a UA meeting, said that some candidates have admitted to him that they do not even know what the UA does.
Fersh said that the survey results show that most candidates have good working knowledge of the UA.
"It's great that a lot of them could name [items] on the agenda so they know what our typical agenda looks like and their ideas can mesh with the ones that we have," Fersh said.
However, she added that enthusiasm about making the University a better place is more important than knowing that "NEC" stands for Nominations and Elections Committee -- a fact four candidates did not know.
"A lack of knowledge doesn't mean they'd be a bad candidate as long as as they're willing to do research in the future," Fersh said.
Today, assuming there are no violations, the NEC will announce election results at 10 p.m. in the Benjamin Franklin Room in Houston Hall.
1. Who is the President of the Univeristy 2. Who is the Chair of the UA 3. What does the NEC stand for, and what does it do?
4. Name 2 other student government groups other than the NEC 5. Name three issues on the UA's agende for this year.
X - Wrong Answer O - Correct Answer
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| Ilyssa Coghlan | O | O | X | O | X |
| Benjy Boxer | O | X | O | O | X |
| Elizabeth Good | O | O | X | O | X |
| Jeremy Cohn | O | O | O | O | O |
| Ben Cirlin | O | X | X | O | X |
| Eric Snyder | O | O | O | O | O |
| William Tong | O | O | O | O | O |
| Erica Evans | O | X | O | O | O |
| Hayling Price | O | X | O | O | O |
| Jay Patel | O | X | X | O | X |
| Jackie Lazor | O | X | O | O | X |
| Bing Chen | O | O | O | O | O |
| Jalena Djordjevic | X | O | O | X | O |
