Leaders back off from new UA paper

Several student leaders are distancing themselves from a preliminary version of the Undergraduate Assembly's five-year plan for undergraduate life, saying the document ignores the concerns of women and minorities. The rough draft of the report, The 1995 Paper: An Evaluation of Progress, was released Wednesday after almost a year of research. Critics of the paper found particular fault with a section on Greek life, calling it "slanted" toward fraternities and sororities. UA Chairperson Duchess Harris emphasized last night that the report was a "rough draft" and the UA body must decide if it should be revised. She said more than 80 percent of the report was researched under former UA Chairperson Benjy Karsch, adding that it does not necesarily represent the views of her administration. The document's Greek life section calls for an expansion of the Greek system and increased self-governance for the Interfraternity, Panhellenic and Black Inter-Greek Councils. It also urges the University to find houses for existing and future sororities and fraternities. President Sheldon Hackney's call to diversify the fraternity-dominated Locust Walk, which has been at the center of campus debate during the last two semesters, is not mentioned. "I find it very frightening," Womens Alliance board member Carla Hutton said last night. "It's the sort of thing I'd expect Pan Hel, the IFC and the BIG-C to hand out." United Minorities Council Chairperson Nalini Samuel said last night that the document "didn't address any minority issues at all." Student Activities Coucil Chairperson Susan Moss said last night that the fact that former IFC President Garrett Reisman and former Pan Hel President Shari Senzon helped author the report unfairly biased the section. Connaissance Chairperson Emily Nichols, who leaders said was one of the more vocal critics of the report, also declined to comment last night. UA Chairperson Harris said that although the rough draft is "not beautiful," she wanted to release the preliminary report to the UA body so it could have something to work with at its first meeting. Wharton senior Varsha Rao, who chaired the committee which prepared the report, said last night that the preliminary report was intended only for student leaders to comment on and was not supposed to be released to the public. UA member Dan Singer said that because "some other student leaders have had some concerns" about the report, he would like to see the revision process go slowly and deliberately. "The revisions could go from changing one word to rewriting the whole paper," Singer said last night. "We can't say it's done until everybody is happy with it." In addition to the controversial Greek life section, the report also recommends changes in Dining Services, Residential Living, social life, campus safety, facilities and planning, and computer resources. Details on the other sections could not be learned because The Daily Pennsylvanian's copy of the preliminary document was reclaimed before this story was complete.

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