Student govt. urges profs to treat inauguration as a 'secular holiday'

The Undergraduate Assembly held its first official meeting of the semester Sunday night, during which it reassessed last semester's projects and work done by UA members over winter break before launching into new issues.

The main legislative proposals addressed included potentially low class attendance for today's presidential inauguration ceremonies and separate budget requests for UA funding by the pre-orientation programs PennArts and PennGreen.

The UA attempted to mitigate attendance concerns by passing support for an open letter addressed to the University faculty, requesting that professors treat the inauguration as a secular holiday.

This would relax attendance policies for students who inform their professors that they will be unable to attend class on that day. However, professors will retain individual discretion as to whether or not they will adhere to the attendance policy suggested by the UA.

The letter, cosigned by both the UA and the Student Committee on Undergraduate Education, projects that hundreds of students will likely miss class as the "inauguration represents a seminal moment in American history." It also suggests that professors teaching mid-day classes accommodate students wishing to witness the event on television.

Wilson Tong, UA Chairman and College and Wharton senior, considered the letter a way to reach out to students. "Typically the UA has shied away from standing up to the faculty," he said. "Hopefully we'll be able to tackle a lot of issues that students care about."

After presentations by representatives from both PennGreen and PennArts, the UA Budget Committee recommended that the UA support both pre-orientation programs on a provisional basis and allocate $4,250 and $2,000 to each program respectively. The proposal passed unanimously.

The UA also enjoyed a heated debate regarding its official stance on recent moves to phase out the sale of plastic water bottles on campus. While Business Services and Penn Dining, in conjunction with the Penn Environmental Group, led the replacement of bottled water with Quench machines in Hill Express in Hill College House and McClelland Express in Ware College House, the UA stood behind this move toward improved sustainability.

Members discussed the need for an active dialogue with students regarding the issue while still maintaining the importance of phasing out bottled water for both environmental and health reasons as peer institutions, such as Washington University in St. Louis, have already done.

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