From academics to advising and contraceptive use, the Undergraduate Assembly meeting on Sunday night covered a lot of bases.
UA members discussed the newly formed Dining Advisory Board’s meeting with Bon Appétit, the possibility of providing independent study credit for the journalistic writing minor and condom distribution.
Bon Appétit wants “to teach us more about how dining works, and we would be able to give them our ideas from a student perspective,” Wharton sophomore and Dining Advisory Board member Tiffany Zhu said.
In order to improve dining, members suggested including extended hours, increasing vegetarian options and implementing a push dispenser instead of a dish for ketchup. UA members also considered implementing a system where students can adjust their meal swipes and dining dollars.
Members also discussed the possibility of enabling students to earn independent study credit for the journalistic writing minor. The minor, which was introduced in 2010 and housed in the English department, requires six credits.
UA members discussed the idea of counting writing for student publications such as The Daily Pennsylvanian and Penn Political Review as one credit toward the minor.
“The journalism minor is structured in a way that would be conducive to this. It would make a lot of sense to have one [course] as an independent study. Journalism is a very operations-based field,” said College senior Ned Shell, who is the chairman of Publications Cooperative, a consortium of 20 University-funded publications.
The issue of determining which publications would qualify for independent study also arose. College sophomore and UA member Ernest Owens, who is a columnist for the DP and a writer for The Vision magazine, said the work required would have to be “rigorous.” He added that “the only thing I could think of that has that rigor right now is the DP.”
The UA also discussed “non-embarrassing ways” to encourage students to pick up condoms, Wharton and College sophomore Chaitnya Jayanti said.
Members suggested using dispensers to distribute condoms around campus and voted not to place the UA logo on condoms.
