The United Minorities Council elected part of its 2006 Executive Board last night, but several positions still remain unfilled.
The UMC, an umbrella organization that oversees 17 cultural groups on campus, chose College junior Shakirah Simley to lead the group as chairwoman next year.
A majority of the spots were filled by sophomores.
"We do have a young new board, which will be highly beneficial for the organization," Simley said. "I have a lot of faith in the strength of the new board's abilities."
Simley said she wants to get UMC members more involved in service opportunities in West Philadelphia through collaboration with Civic House.
"Being politically active includes administrating and writing proposals, but another type of political activism is reaching out to the community," she said.
Board members also emphasized the importance of connecting with campus organizations with similar goals.
"We want to try to have smaller events and collaborate with other groups," said incoming Programming co-Chairwoman and College sophomore Alexis McFarlane, adding that she wanted to reach out to religious groups and gay-rights activists on campus.
The organization will continue to push for the recruitment and retention of minority students and the improvement of funding and space for minority groups on campus.
"We want to change the recruiting process of the admissions office," Admissions co-Chairman and College sophomore Azam Qureshi said, adding that Penn should be expanding its recruiting efforts to lesser-known high schools in the country.
The Executive Board also hopes to modify the Class of 2010 handbook in order to better inform freshmen regarding minority groups on campus.
Simley was confident of administrative support for the UMC's goals.
"We've already met with the president and the vice provost," she said. "They gave us input on how we can redirect our energies to talking to specific University administrators."
Only eight of the 11 open board positions were filled during the election session. No one ran for vice chair, corresponding secretary or treasurer. Simley said that elections will take place in January for these spots and that she wants to increase interest in the positions.
