The proposed building of a casino in Center City was a point of contentious debate at Sunday's Undergraduate Assembly meeting
Almost 40 representatives from several of Penn's minority and religious groups on campus came to support the Casino Development Proposal. The proposal brought up a number of concerns and recommendations, including questioning the development of a casino in Center City without proper consultation, requesting that the University conduct a study to determine how the casino will affect Penn and its students, creating more opportunities for Penn students to debate the issue and instructing the UA to reach out to other Philadelphia universities regarding the issue.
Some members of the UA objected to the proposal on the basis that it was not under UA jurisdiction, that it brought up issues of morality and that the enactments assumed that the city had not conducted a transparent democratic process in moving forward with the construction of the casino.
Several members of the UA in spoke in favor of the proposal, as did representatives from student groups including the Living Water Christian Fellowship, the Latino Coalition, and the Asian Pacific Student Coalition. After about three hours of debate and several amendments, many background facts that members considered biased were omitted and the enactment to question the development of the casino without proper consultation was also taken out. The remaining three enactments passed.
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