Politically diverse students unite under Penn Political Coalition

Some student groups who traditionally represent opposing ideals are uniting to create a centralized source of politics on campus.

The Penn Political Coalition, an umbrella group for 10 member groups, is intended to be a resource and a point of contact for politically-active groups and students, regardless of their political affiliations.

Member groups include organizations such as Penn for Palestine, Penn Israel Public Affairs Committee, as well as Penn Democrats and College Republicans.

Talks about creating PoCo began almost a year ago, but Monday was the coalition’s first general body meeting in Huntsman Hall.

“We were sick and tired of people telling us that Penn students aren’t politically aware … because we were all working with politically-minded students on a day-to-day basis,” said Isabel Friedman, College senior and PoCo chair.

“We realized there was nothing at Penn we could point to that represented those students.”

One of PoCo’s main purposes is to help guide its member groups to figure out logistics such as acquiring venues, funding and putting out advertisements.

“There’s a lot of resources you all want centralized,” said Will Smith, College sophomore and PoCo Treasurer, at the GBM. The group also hopes to encourage collaboration among member groups.

Penn Environmental Group, one of the member groups, hopes to take advantage of this collaboration when it makes a candidate guide for the upcoming election, according to Sara Allan, a College freshman and head of PEG’s political committee.

“You want to communicate with each other and the rest of the politically-interested student body at Penn,” said Laura Brown, PoCo vice chair for Internal Affairs, President of College Republicans.

PoCo’s steering listserv will include the committee’s executive board and member group leaders and will increase collaboration among the groups, according to Brown, a Wharton junior and Daily Pennsylvanian staff member.

“It seemed like a good way to get our group better known around campus,” said Teresa Hamill, College senior and co-president of Penn for Life, one of the member groups.

Penn Political Review intends to use the listserv to recruit both staff members and contributing writers, according to Stephen Fritz, PPR editor-in-chief and College junior.

PoCo is also working with administrators to secure funding for political education on campus, Friedman said.

PoCo is working on funding itself through sources such as Fox Leadership and the Office of Student Affairs, according to Smith.

Other umbrella groups, such as PoCo, generally don’t receive funding from the Student Activities Council, according to College junior Melissa Roberts, SAC chair.

Another long-term goal is obtaining a representative to work with the admissions office. This person would sign likely letters and help connect PoCo with prospective students interested in politics.

Other groups, such as the Latino Coalition, currently have such a representative with the admission staff.

Several other groups are expressing interest in becoming one of PoCo’s member group, according to Friedman. Applications for PoCo will be processed on a rolling basis.

“Our group does not represent 100 percent of the politically active groups on campus,” said Friedman, “but we hope that as we continue to build PoCo, it has a greater presence. We want to create a better, richer political community.”

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.