UA should reach out to hear more students' voices

Whatever the outcome, this election clearly taught us that every vote counts and every voice can be heard. One might think this lesson would be even more apparent in our own college community, but sadly it isn't. We don't get to elect our president and only one of the six branches of student government is elected by and for students. Often, the administration turns a deaf ear to individual student voices and even entire groups on campus. Before their nine-day sit-in ever began, Penn Students Against Sweatshops held a shorter sit-in simply to get a chance to share its opinion with Judy. However, University officials give an incredible amount of credence to our only elected body, the Undergraduate Assembly. As has been shown time and time again, when the UA speaks, the administration listens. Although the UA has other responsibilities, including distributing over $1 million to other organizations, its power to speak and be heard is much more important than the size of its purse. Given these circumstances, it is important that the UA serve as an effective vehicle of the student body's collective voice. And to do so, the UA must maintain open dialogue with the students it serves. Unfortunately, this is rarely the case. After the candidates implore us for petition signatures, plaster signs all over campus and finally get elected, they disappear into the night and are only heard from if they receive coverage in The Daily Pennsylvanian. Perusing the list of accomplishments so proudly displayed on its Web site, I noticed that the UA recently gained listserv access to the entire student body. And in its own words: "Now [we] will be able to inform the entire student body of our accomplishments and resolutions." But when's the last time you got e-mail from UA Chairman Michael Bassik? Currently, the UA's main form of communication is the various surveys it conducts. And while surveys give validity to specific causes, they ultimately fall short because the UA only gets answers to the questions being asked. Also important are the questions it's not asking. Students should be more comfortable bringing their concerns to the body. In searching for solutions to this problem, I discovered that the UA publishes a monthly newsletter -- news to me even in my third year here. This underexposed newsletter, in combination with e-mail, could fill the void. A monthly e-mail message giving a brief summary of the next month's agenda, along with a link to the newsletter, would be sufficient and would not clog uninterested students' e-mail accounts. The UA is not completely oblivious, and occasionally it figures out what the students want. But, even then, these concerns are often met with only half-hearted solutions. Last year, the UA realized that students needed more basketball courts. Its solution: build an outdoor court on top of the parking lot at 38th and Spruce. But many Gimbel regulars expressed their lack of excitement for the outdoor court, proclaiming they would only consider using it the first and last months of school, when the weather is warm enough. Their greatest complaint about the current facilities was that during prime basketball time, the third court is often used for aerobics or ping-pong. It appears a better solution would have been to find an alternative place for these activities since you can perform jumping jacks anywhere, but you can only dunk on a hoop. While this example is representative of their failures, when the UA fully exploits its resources, the results can be quite positive. Take the financial aid initiative spearheaded by Michael Krouse, the current UA treasurer. Observing that the summer earnings contribution of financial aid packages prevented many students from taking non-paying summer internships, he pushed to make this issue a priority. And after researching the policies at peer institutions and conducting a thorough survey, the UA presented the administration with a proposal and voila -- students can now get their summer contribution waived. But accomplishments like these should not be so rare. We must demand that the UA not only hear our voice, but also find effective solutions to our problems. And remember, if you don't get an e-mail from Mr. Bassik any time soon, he's got an inbox that's just waiting to be clogged.

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