PCUW to hold first-ever election

While Matt Amalfitano and Grant Dubler duke it out for Undergraduate Assembly presidency, women across campus are vying to be members of the new steering committee of the Penn Consortium of Undergraduate Women.

On March 29, the current board of PCUW will be electing a new set of women to take charge of the organization.

Although the group’s constitution had designated elections as the means of allocating positions on the board, this is the first time in current members’ memories that it is being done, according to College junior Kaneesha Parsard, PCUW vice president of university relations.

In previous years, positions on the steering committee were decided based on an application process, she said.

The current board decided to hold elections this year because the former procedure for selecting committee members was not as democratic as it could be, Parsard said.

The new election, on the other hand, “will allow the most qualified women across campus to run and potentially fill these positions,” she said.

In addition to streamlining elections, the organization made overdue changes to its constitution earlier this month, College senior and president of PCUW Rosa Cui said.

Changes include an increase in the number of positions on the steering committee, formal descriptions of the positions and a change in election time from mid-April to late March.

Holding elections earlier will leave an entire month in which the old and new boards can work together on current projects, Cui said.

“This will ensure continuity for the following year,” she said.

Most of the changes had been made years ago, but the constitution was not updated to reflect them, according to Cui,

It is important for a student organization to uphold the ideas of its founders, but also to change with the times, Parsard said. “It’s a two-way street.”

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