Quoting Beyonce, Nursing and Wharton sophomore and Undergraduate Assembly volunteer member G.J. Melendez-Torres implored the University to "finally put a ring on its commitment to gender and ethnic minorities."
His request was met with a standing ovation, as student leaders packed Sunday's UA meeting to discuss a series of proposals targeting the status and support of minorities on campus.
The meeting opened with Nominations and Elections Committee chairwoman and College junior Brittany Stark presenting the group's proposed choices of six mis- or underrepresented student groups to sit on next year's University Council.
The UA approved the choices with little dissent, confirming the selection of the Asian Pacific Student Coalition, the Assembly of International Students, Civic House Associates Coalition, the Lambda Alliance, the Latino Coalition and the Muslim Students Association to the UC.
The 5B - the minority and cultural coalitions on campus - presented proposals to support minorities in undergraduate education stemmed from a 36-page document compiled by the Working Group on Minorities in Undergraduate Education, which is composed of Melendez-Torres, UA member and College freshman Faye Cheng and UA Academic Affairs committee chairman and College sophomore Matt Amalfitano. The document also included input from the APSC, Lambda, LC, the United Minorities Council and UMOJA, the umbrella group for black student organizations.
As Melendez-Torres explained to the assembly, the Working Group's mission was to "stand up for these gender and ethnic minorities and say that they are an important part of the University."
The first proposal called for the departmentalization of the Latin American and Latino Studies Program. The authors of the proposal expressed the need to expand the program to a department to ensure the University's commitment to providing faculty and resources.
The second proposal aimed to support, although not departmentalize, the Asian American Studies Program and work with APSC to promote the relevant coursework as "valuable education experiences."
The third proposal, presented by Lambda, supported hiring of lesbian gay bisexual transgender faculty and expanding the current Gender and Societies department to include LGBT studies. "Penn should be a university that promotes not just leaders who are LGBT, but LGBT leaders," said Melendez-Torres.
The fourth proposal called for the "prompt departmentalization of the Center for Africana Studies" and further discussions between the UA and UMOJA about the need to combat the harmful "perception of 'tokenism' towards minority students."
These four proposals passed with positive discussion and few concerns, and all followed with standing applause as the UA approved each one.
The fifth proposal aimed to expand cultural diversity requirements in the college curriculum. However, discussions focused less on the importance of cultural diversity than the need for student choice in coursework.
"Students should have some level of autonomy in choosing what they want to study," expressed College and Wharton senior and UA Treasurer Ben Coulter.
The proposal passed 14 to 3 with two abstentions after a slight amendment was made.
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