The six branches of student government have begun efforts to increase minority representation by collaborating with six of Penn's cultural and minority coalitions.
The initiative is meant to address a noticeable decline in the presence of minority and female undergraduates in student government in recent years.
On Sept. 4, the United Minorities Council, the Lambda Alliance, the Latino Coalition, the Penn Consortium of Undergraduate Women, the Asian Pacific Student Coalition and UMOJA, the umbrella group for black organizations, held an information session to encourage minority undergraduates to become involved with student government.
"We recognize that it's a concern for all our constituent groups," said Wharton junior and Latino Coalition chairman Rami Reyes.
Representatives from all six branches of student government and The Daily Pennsylvanian were present at the event.
UMOJA planning and facilitating chairwoman and College senior Temitope Maiyegun said that although there are multiple student government meetings, this one was more personal for minority students who got to hear others who had been in their shoes share their experiences.
According to data from Undergraduate Assembly chairman and College and Wharton senior Wilson Tong, women made up 42.4 percent of the members of the UA in the 2005-2006 academic year. The number has been declining: last spring, women comprised only five of 24 members, 20.8 percent, before freshmen elections.
Similarly, UA members "of color" - which Tong described as black, Asian American and Latino - dropped from 17 of 33 (51.5 percent) in the 2005-2006 academic year to 11 of the 24 (45.8 percent) this year.
But for the first time in four years, the UA has a Latino member.
The Student Committee on Undergraduate Education has no black or Latino members, said chairman and College and Wharton senior Zach Fuchs. But of their 25 members, 12 are women.
Social Planning and Events Committee President and College senior Michelle Jacobson said that SPEC's membership diversity is difficult to quantify because SPEC consists of 10 committees. But she pointed to SPECTRUM - SPEC to Represent Undergraduate Minorities - as SPEC's way to ensure representation of minorities.
Jacobson added that in her three years on SPEC, the group has either maintained or increased its diversity.
Nominations and Elections committee chair and College junior Brittany Stark said the information session was a step in the right direction.
"It's important to show that the people running the school are diverse," she said.
UMC chairwoman, DP columnist and College and Wharton senior Lisa Zhu said minority representation is "definitely not a numbers game," but that "numbers help."
"It's ideal to have not just someone who is a minority due to the census, but obviously someone who is familiar with the issues," said Zhu.
Notably, neither advertisements in the DP, nor the Facebook event created for the meeting indicated that it was intended for minorities.
"One of the big constituent groups that we were trying to hit was women," said UMC vice chairman, College senior and former 34th Street section editor Derek Mazique, explaining the advertisement's word choice.
But, he said, the event was advertised "through certain minority channels" and held at the ARCH building, which he described as a "comfortable place for minorities."
"We just wanted to be as inclusive as possible," said Zhu, saying that the words "minorities" or "women" would have made the event's reach too narrow.
