Letters to the Editor

No proposal on funding To the Editor:

Tuesday's article about the Undergraduate Assembly's agenda for this semester ("UA narrows focus for spring term," The Daily Pennsylvanian, Jan. 8) incorrectly stated, "the UA is working to ensure that, for example, a faith-based a cappella group receives comparable student funding to a secular one."

In fact, the UA has not yet taken a position on Student Activities Council funding for student-run religious organizations.

As elected representatives, UA members are concerned about this issue because how student activity funds are spent affects our campus culture. Our Budget Committee continues to work closely with SAC, which plays a vital role in the allocation of funds to student groups.

The UA as a body, however, has not formally debated proposal or resolution addressing whether religious organizations should be eligible for SAC funds. Nor have we, as a body, sought funding for these groups through informal channels.

Jed Gross

College '02

The writer is vice chairman of the Undergraduate Assembly. A free and open debate To the Editor:

Over the past three months, I have noticed something missing from the debate on graduate student unionization: the voices of those students who are opposed to a graduate student union.

The only way the question of unionization can be fully and adequately addressed is through open and public debate. Graduate Employees Together-University of Pennsylvania has been quite secretive in its campaign. Is GET-UP willing and able to engage in public debate where their answers will be on record? Right now it appears not.

It is time for graduate students, as a community of scholars, to come together and tackle these issues in a public forum. We must not let ideology get in the way -- we must look at the facts.

We must scrutinize the American Federation of Teachers constitution and see how its provisions will only wrestle power away from graduate students and place it in the hands of unaffiliated administrators.

We must ask GET-UP how it can promise to negotiate for non-service fellowships when unions can bargain on employment issues exclusively.

GET-UP has been quick to publicize the benefits of unionization and up until now, only the administration has taken the opposing viewpoint. The Penn community should know that GET-UP does not speak for all teaching assistants.

If those students who support a union really want to make their case, they will have to do much better than stage protests and scream at administrators. They will have to be prepared to openly and publicly debate the very people they claim to represent.

Max Dionisio

Asian and Middle Eastern Studies Ph.D. student

The writer is chairman of Penn Graduate Students Against Unionization.

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