At the last Undergraduate Assembly meeting of the semester, members tied up loose ends on housing, course offerings and free newspapers before winter break.
Major topics from yesterday night's meeting include:
n Engineering sophomore Charles Slominski and Wharton senior Azim Munivar gave an update on the returning students housing application process.
Issues raised regarding the current process included students' misuse of residential programs as a means of getting into certain college houses and problems created as a result of the delay in housing decision announcements.
Next semester, to improve the housing application process, the College Houses and Academic Services will look into purchasing a new online room allocation program.
n The UA members passed College sophomore Chi-Chi Achebe's proposal to persuade the University to allow more Academically Based Community Service and Programs for Awareness in Cultural Education courses to fulfill the relevant College sector and foundational approach requirements for the class of 2010 and later.
n After much deliberation, the UA members passed the budget request proposed by UA chairman Jason Karsh to fund the New York Times Collegiate Readership Program with $3,000. Some members opposed spending money on the program because it could potentially take away money from other organizations.
Ultimately, the debate was resolved because the Provost, the Vice Provost for University Life and the College Houses and Academic Services helped pay some of the cost.
The program, due to begin next semester, will supply approximately 700 free copies of The New York Times to College Houses and other buildings on campus every day from Monday to Friday.
