By MAGGIE RUSCH
Staff Writer
rusch@dailypennsylvanian.com
Student government on campus began making progress toward increased minority representation 13 years ago when the United Minorities Council lobbied for a seat on the University Council advisory body.
Three years of heated debate later, the UMC was granted its wish in the form of a permanent seat on the University Council. The following year, another round of minority representatives joined them as the Nominations and Elections Committee selected three misrepresented or underrepresented organizations to sit on the UC.
Today, the UC has expanded to include six total minority representatives.
Since this year marks the decade anniversary, it was fitting that the six groups selected were approved by the UA with little dissent at Sunday's meeting. Next year's representatives come from the Asian Pacific Student Coalition, the Assembly of International Students, the Civic House Associates Coalition, the Lambda Alliance, the Latino Coalition and the Muslim Students Association.
However, this progress has not come without a fight.
In the fall of 1990, during a series of meetings to reassess the student government structure at Penn, it was suggested to give UMC a permanent voting position on the Social Planning and Events Committee's executive board. However, the proposal was one of many that ultimately failed to reach fruition, including a proposal to split the UA into two branches - one popularly elected and the other composed of student group representatives chosen by NEC.
These suggestions, though mostly overlooked, established that many felt the need for greater - and more accurate - student representation, particularly in the realm of the underrepresented on campus. This need would not be met until eight years later, when UMC was granted the permanent UC seat.
In 2000, the UMC and UA joined together to encourage minority students to participate in student government. Those working on the project - including NEC, which campaigned heavily in college houses - felt that a more diverse UA would give the organization more legitimacy, especially when it came to minority-sensitive issues.
A year later, the groups made the first concrete steps toward actively addressing the lack of minorities involved in student government.
In the spring of 2001, the UA decided to reallocate three of its 15 UC seats after the Latino Coalition requested its own seat in the body.
However, instead of appointing LC directly to one of the UA's three relinquished seats, the UA decided the open spaces would be available for other student groups after review and approval by the NEC. The seats would be temporary, elected and renewed yearly.
Even with this progress, the LC felt its request was unfulfilled. It had wanted a permanent seat, not the possibility of a temporary one. Most notably, the group expressed disappointment that the UA viewed minority representation as a topic to be reviewed and debated by another authority.
The NEC, however, saw the process, which consisted of an application and interview process similar to the method used today, as an unbiased and effective way to approach the problem.
The first NEC-selected minority groups included LC, the Interfraternity Council and UMOJA, a coalition of 23 student organizations representing students of the African diaspora.
Despite the progress, a common complaint was that the entirety of the campus minority community - accounting for not only racial diversity, but also gender and sexual orientation - had been squeezed into three seats.
In the fall of 2005, this concern began to be addressed when the UA passed a proposal expanding the available minority seats from three to six.
