UA offers frosh orientation reforms

The Undergraduate Assembly Steering Committee recently proposed a number of reforms to New Student Orientation.

UA Steering -- which is comprised of representatives from all six branches of student government, Greek umbrella organizations, community service groups and minority coalitions -- is hoping that these reforms will give new students greater opportunities to interact with student leaders, and increase their awareness of the different extracurricular activities on campus.

"This is really a product of working with the various student groups and our administrators to better student life," Wharton sophomore and UA Education Committee Chairwoman Cynthia Wong said.

Eager to increase interaction between different college houses, foster diversity awareness and improve co-curricular programming, UA Steering has listed a number of specific changes they hope to make to NSO.

The UA will create several subcommittees to accomplish each goal, from planning competitions and projects between various college houses, to organizing panels with student leaders, to integrating "international students with the rest of freshmen."

"With the proseminar we held earlier this year, along with our resolution for the expansion of preorientation programs and now this new plan of action, the UA has taken some active steps in helping new students become more involved at Penn," UA Chairman and College senior Jason Levy said.

The UA has also passed a number of "sentiments" in the past month -- each of which was originally a concrete proposal. Because the details of their plans were often debatable, the body instead chose to recognize the fact that they agree with the proposals' ideals, but feel that more fine-tuning needs to be done.

"The sentiments we pass provide a strong foundation for bigger projects in the future," Wong said. "A lot of the feedback we get from the body is very helpful in allowing these projects to grow and evolve into more focused results."

Levy added that, although the UA has made only few formal resolutions in the past month, "we've been able to get more views from outside the UA and have used UA Steering very uniquely."

The sentiments that were passed included a proposal to reform the flyering policy in college houses, a plan to create a more structured endorsement process for UA elections and a resolution against the Recording Industry Association of America's arbitrary prosecution of undergraduate students who have shared files of copyrighted songs.

One of the most vocal UA members to speak out against these proposals was Engineering and Wharton junior and Interfraternity Council Vice Chairman Conor O'Callaghan, who found the file-sharing resolution and election endorsement proposal to be futile.

"People will bitch about government at any level," he said.

O'Callaghan also felt that the RIAA would "not care about what 30 students at Penn have to say."

Nevertheless, some UA members remain hopeful about promoting change at Penn and in the greater college community.

"Although we may not have a big influence on some of these authorities like the RIAA, it still is our job to represent the students at Penn," UA Internal/External Committee Co-Chairwoman and College sophomore Rachel Fersh said.

"And we do have an impression on the authorities [at Penn] that are relevant to us," she added.

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