The leaders of Penn Student Government discussed their recent contributions to undergraduate student life at the State of School event last night.
Held in the Sphinx Gallery of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, the event was sponsored by the Nominations and Elections Committee. The leaders of the six branches of student government gave brief speeches, which were followed by an open forum inviting questions from members of the student body.
The Class Board presidents spoke first. Class Board President of the Class of 2014 and Wharton senior Spencer Penn announced that planning for Feb Club, an annual tradition that offers events for seniors throughout the month, has already begun.
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Engineering senior Michelle Ho, chair of the Student Committee on Undergraduate Education, announced the successful completion of several SCUE projects. The committee just launched OPenned, a website that is “best described as a cross between TEDx and MIT open courseware,” which features tutorials and videos from campus events.
SCUE has also been working with Penn Libraries to construct a collaborative classroom in Van Pelt Library. The classroom is outfitted with whiteboard walls and “really awesome technology” that is meant “to facilitate new styles of learning,” Ho said.
College senior Julie Palomba, president of the Social Planning and Events Committee, was next to present. She reminded audience members that SPEC’s next event will be the Fall Concert this Friday, which is set to feature indie-pop band The Neighbourhood.
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Palomba also mentioned that SPEC released an online suggestions form in order to solicit input on Spring Fling performers. The committee is currently in the process of selecting performers for this year’s concert.
College junior and Student Activities Council Chair Kanisha Parthasarathy addressed recent criticisms of SAC in her speech. She said that she plans to address internal SAC issues, such as streamlining the informational documents available to student groups when they apply for funding so that they “can have some sort of reasonable expectation” of what allocation they might receive.
SAC is also currently analyzing invoices from annual student group events in order to compare year-to-year changes in facilities costs. She hopes that the project will shed further light on the causes of the SAC moratorium.
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At the end of the event, College senior Max Presser, who is chief of the Medical Emergency Response Team, commended PSG’s efforts to be transparent.
“I think [PSG] bringing everyone together is a good example of how we should all be presenting our work at Penn,” he said.
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