Despite allegations of initiation rituals involving heavy drinking, the Undergraduate Assembly is working to make on-campus parties safer for students.
On Sunday night, the UA announced that it would present a resolution for its University-wide alcohol policy review on Nov. 20. One of the major aims of the policy is to make registering on-campus parties easier for student groups.
The review process is in its “closing phases,” said UA President Tyler Ernst, a senior in Wharton and Engineering.
UA members also discussed recent modifications to the Penn Course Review website — an online resource for students to compare courses based on class and professor ratings.
The project to redesign the website was introduced earlier this semester by PennApps Labs, a student organization dedicated to creating and maintaining student-run technologies.
When the beta site was launched last week, there were inaccuracies in some professor listings. The issue was brought to light when Undergraduate Chairman of the English Department Max Cavitch emailed his department and alerted PennApps Labs.
College junior and PennApps Labs member Amalia Hawkins said the mistakes were promptly resolved. The beta version of Penn Course Review is “ready to be live,” she said, adding that the site will be reviewed by students affiliated with Deans’ Advisory Boards across all four schools before it replaces the current interface.
Hawkins does not believe a system for browsing courses by professor rating or course difficulty will be installed in the near future. “We would love to, but we don’t think provost and faculty will go for it,” she said.
UA representatives also addressed the possibility of making the sector requirements within the College of Arts and Sciences more flexible. Currently, students are required to take six pre-approved courses to fulfill foundational approaches and seven to fulfill their sector requirements.
“When you look at the point of the sectors, it seems a lot more courses should be able to fulfill them than currently exist,” said College sophomore and UA associate member Claire Shimberg, who proposed the revision.
The Wharton School and the School of Nursing currently have a petition-based system for students to fulfill requirements. The process is “sort of like an ongoing discussion,” Nursing junior Spencer Stubbs said.
Members also discussed introducing mobile payment methods — such as PennCard or credit card readers — to make it easier for student groups recognized by the Office of Student Affairs to sell tickets and merchandise on Locust Walk.
Class of 2013 President and College and Wharton student Jonathon Youshaei said using credit and debit card readers for the Hey Day event last year was “a mess.” He recommended using Square, a device that allows credit card payments to be routed through mobile phones, as an alternative.
UA representatives also discussed ways to encourage students to get directly involved in the Holiday Reminder Project. This initiative would require students who observe religious holidays to email their professors early in the semester with a list of their scheduling conflicts.
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