Ask College senior Rachel Fersh, chairwoman of the Undergraduate Assembly, how she intended to improve University life at the beginning of fall semester, and she would cite 10 goals for the UA to work toward, ranging from recycling services to repairs of Penn facilities.
The UA has addressing seven of these, Fersh said, but in many ways hard-and-fast results have not yet been achieved.
Fersh said that "none of the goals have been entirely completed yet" and added that intangible goals -- such as improving the UA's image -- must be worked on constantly.
But one of the UA's greatest successes this semester did not come out of a long-term goal, said Wharton junior Brett Thalmann, UA vice chairman for external affairs. The UA's bus service to the Philadelphia International Airport over Thanksgiving break was one of the most popular initiatives in years, he said.
Thalmann, who organized the service, sees it as a success because "all the buses were full."
Fersh said that, because of the praise that the bus service has received from students, there is a "97 percent chance" that it will be provided again for winter break.
A survey was e-mailed to students about a week ago asking for input on the bus service.
College sophomore Sunny Patel, UA co-chairman of student life, said that he is proud of the work that the UA did in advancing a music-subscription service with a company like Napster or Ruckus Network.
Although no such service has been implemented, Patel said there is a "90 to 95 percent certainty that we'll have a music-subscription service by the start of the next school year."
Not all of the UA's goals have met with success, however.
Thalmann particularly noted the UA's failure to renovate Penn InTouch, which provides students with transcripts, course schedules and financial information.
He said that the UA has been trying to improve the Web site for the past semester but has not achieved a major redesign which would help facilitate class registration.
The goal is to eventually enable students to search for classes according to the times when they are offered.
This will help students to choose classes at convenient times.
The UA also wants to implement a function on the Web site allowing a search of courses that fulfill specific requirements.
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