Although the next campus election is nowhere in sight, the Nominations and Elections Committee is already promising change.
The student group responsible for running campus elections has planned a retreat and diversity workshop for Feb. 7. The day-long event will contemplate the current dearth of diversity in student organizations and strive to create a leadership that actively reflects campus demographics.
College junior and NEC chairwoman Brittany Stark explained that committee individuals involved in the workshop will discuss campus minority groups and look for ways to boost individual involvement at the leadership level.
"The workshop is a great way to get students thinking about underrepresented or misrepresented groups on campus," Stark said.
The NEC will consider not only racial diversity, but also gender and sexual orientation in efforts to increase diversity among student organizations.
Recognition of the need for greater diversity awareness through training came internally from NEC, said Makuu associate director and Penn alumna Daina Richie. The committee approached her to plan and lead the upcoming workshop.
Richie lauded the NEC's attempts to raise awareness, noting that past progress does not guarantee future success.
"Some will take for granted that equality has always existed - both in resources and in representation," she said.
Richie's plans for the event include discussions on identity and the importance of honoring and appreciating differences among individuals.
She explained that learning about identity is a great way to dispel the concept of the "other."
Richie said she also plans to show the movie Crash as an apt metaphor and discussion tool for the encounters students face when they arrive at college.
The NEC has addressed the need for a more diverse student government in the past. For example, the group allocates a given number of seats on the University Council for underrepresented groups.
College sophomore and Latino Coalition chairman Cristian Barrios commended the efforts to reach out to the underrepresented, especially given the changing demographics of the population.
"It is important that the University and other students realize that minority groups may have different needs that still need to be represented," Barrios said.
As an alumna, Richie has witnessed past progress the University has forged toward becoming more inclusive. She noted that students today cannot be complacent and take recent strides toward equal representation for granted.
"We often don't realize how much has changed," she said. "We need to delve into history to realize that the notion of differences being acceptable hasn't been accepted for a long time."
