Student groups received an extra seat on the University's top advising body last year, and with applications due today, it remains to be seen exactly who will get a spot.
There are six available seats for student groups on the University Council, which is made up of students, faculty and administrators and meets monthly to discuss campus issues. There were previously five.
Last year, the selection process came under fire from minority groups who said that it lacked transparency.
While the precise number of groups planning to apply is unknown, several umbrella organizations confirmed their plans to seek the spots.
Leaders of black-interest coalition Umoja, the InterFraternity Council, the gay-interest Lambda Alliance, the Latino Coalition and the Civic House Associates Coalition confirmed that they are applying for a seat this year.
The University Council allocates 16 seats to the Undergraduate Assembly to fill with student representatives.
Prior to last spring, 10 of those 16 were given to UA members, one seat was guaranteed for the United Minorities Council and the remaining five seats were saved for student representatives from groups deemed underrepresented.
The Nominations and Elections Committee -- which regulates student government elections -- has the responsibility of selecting groups to fill those seats. However, several student groups criticized the NEC for a lack of transparency in its selection process last year.
As a result, the UA changed the seat-allocation process, giving another seat to student groups and taking one seat away from the UA.
"It's a great thing for students to be represented on University Council, whatever form that takes," College senior and NEC Chairman David Diesenhouse said.
College junior and Civic House Associates Coalition co-chairwoman Caroline Gammill agreed with the decision to change the distribution of seats.
"I don't think they're being too generous," Gammill said. "There's always room for more mis- and underrepresented groups on the UC."
Last year, Umoja, the Asian Pacific Student Coalition and Allies -- a gay-interest group -- boycotted a UA Steering meeting after the NEC did not select them for the UC or explain their rationale to the groups' liking.
College sophomore and Umoja Political Chairman Jerome Wright was unhappy with last year's UC seat allocation process because of "the fact that we could not get a justification for the seat" choices.
But Wright is hopeful that the process will be more fair this year.
"It's a positive direction that's been taken last semester," Wright said.
The recent creation of the Lambda Alliance -- a coalition of eight Penn gay-interest groups -- may help decrease competition for UC seats.
While the Lambda Alliance is applying for a UC seat, the Queer Student Alliance -- which currently holds a seat -- and Allies are not.
"The Lambda Alliance will be a way for us to apply together," Wharton junior and QSA chairman Brett Thalmann said.
Other groups that received seats last year were the Panhellenic Council, Hillel, the Civic House Associates Coalition and the Latino Coalition.
