UA joins coalition of Philadelphia college student governments

In a unanimous vote, the Undergraduate Assembly decided to join the Council of Philadelphia Student Governments — a coalition of local student government representatives that will address issues of common interest.

The Council, comprised of directly elected students from Temple, Drexel and LaSalle Universities, among other schools, was created by a consortium of Philadelphia-based student leaders, UA Chairman and College junior Alec Webley said, “with full knowledge of the history of these kinds of initiatives that haven’t worked well.”

Nonetheless, Webley added, he and his colleagues strove to make the body “a very democratic, very grassroots organization that would lead to great benefits.”

Some of the body’s primary concerns, according to UA President-elect and College junior Matt Amalfitano, include a potential rape crisis center in the city and mandatory background checks for students involved in community service.

Amalfitano — who will sit on the Council along with another Penn representative — said his main focus is making an immediate impact.

“I’m ready to start talking policy,” he said, emphasizing his hope that the end of this summer will bring “a marked improvement” in some of these issues.

College junior and UA member Mo Shahin was the only student to advocate against joining the Council at the UA’s meeting last Sunday. But he said despite intial concerns over whether “this is exactly the type of setup we want,” he fully supports the UA’s decision.

Though Shahin did not want UA members to “automatically join something and later on have to worry about what we ratified,” he said, “really good things can potentially come out of” an allegiance among local school leaders.

As promising as the Council may seem now, Shahin insisted, only time will tell how powerful the organization will become.

“It has a lot of potential,” he said. “It’s a very new organization … the first years will determine whether or not it will succeed.”

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