When Yale University sophomore Jon Terenzetti heard last year that Penn students can pack food into takeout containers and take them home from dining halls, he wondered why Yale students couldn't do the same.
A year later, Yale is in the midst of bringing a takeaway system to its own dining halls.
Terenzetti is Yale's co-head delegate to the Ivy Council, an organization that facilitates discussion among Ivy League student leaders. The Council puts on three conferences annually, the first of which was held last weekend at Yale.
Delegates typically discuss "issues that all the Ivies combat everyday," said College junior Bing Chen, a UA member who works on the Ivy Council.
Topics at last weekend's conference ranged from self-segregation and campus culture to student mental health and dining.
"The conferences create opportunities for information sharing," Chen said. "It initiates and facilitates dialogue among the Ivies and gives us a more unified stance on issues."
Penn's head Ivy Council delegate Claire Choi, a College sophomore, said the weekend was successful because it gave Penn delegates some great ideas, including what to do to bolster school spirit.
Choi said Penn needs to follow Yale's example and "use the housing system better" to unify Penn students.
And even with tri-annual meetings, Undergraduate Assembly chairman and College senior Jason Karsh said the student-government heads from all the schools are brainstorming ways to meet more often.
They already e-mail regularly, Karsh said, but in-person meetings would increase communication.
Terenzetti agreed: "It's really important for student governments to know what other schools are doing and try tto implement some of the things that they're doing well," he said.
Last year's Ruckus initiative, as well as the UA's current plan to create a cumulative, schoolwide Google calendar, both stemmed from discussions with other Ivies.
Not surprisingly, even with all this collaboration, UA representatives say Penn's student government is ahead of its peers.
Karsh, referencing Winston Churchill, said, "Penn has the worst form of student government, except for all the others that have been tried."
