We are running for Undergraduate Assembly President and Vice President because we have the talent, vision, and perspective to represent and lead the student body.
Our platform focuses on mental health, cost, campus, and community. We hope to make this campus a happier, healthier, better place for all members of the Penn community. It all goes back to mental health and wellness. If students have to deal with less unnecessary stress, they will be happier and better equipped to face the day ahead.
Mental health reform should be addressed at three levels: administrators, faculty and staff, and students. We plan to work with administrators on the Campaign for Wellness to make sure that it is best marketed to and received by students. Improvements to Counseling and Psychological Services have been well received over the past year, and we will continue to lobby to make CAPS even more accessible to students, by advocating for the CAPS Embedded Model and greater diversity among CAPS clinicians.
Faculty, whether it is a professor, advisor, or staff member, are often the only University employees with whom students have regular interactions. By equipping these vital members of the community with the knowledge to recognize a student in need and point them in the right direction, we can make sure that all students have a first resource that they can speak to.
Students are equally responsible for creating an environment that prioritizes mental wellness, so we want to work with student groups to arm all students with these same tools. This means teaching club leaders, teaching assistantss, and other campus leaders important wellness behaviors, but it also means reminding ourselves and our peers that sometimes it’s OK to not be OK.
By focusing on cost, we hope to expand access, equity, and inclusion by making all aspects of campus life more attainable for more students. This can range from tuition classrooms to social life to Penn traditions; the reality is that students are incurring more and more costs at Penn, and we want to find a way to curb these increases. By working with administrators and faculty, we hope to raise awareness about the burden that these costs can have on students, and the added unnecessary stress that they can cause.
When it comes to campus, our aim is twofold: better utilize spaces and improve academics. As new campus facilities are built, like New College House West, we want to advise and consult with administrators on these building plans to ensure that they include the spaces that students need: performing arts spaces and prayer spaces. Additionally, existing campus spaces can be reallocated to be used as space for prayer or performing arts practice space.
Our academic approach will be centered around working with the newly codified Academic Steering. The members of this steering board are the experts on academic issues, so we defer to their expertise to work on projects that are central to academic life. Key points that we would like to explore include making study abroad more affordable and accessible to all students, and revamping the academic advising system to meet the needs of students and offer real guidance when it comes to choosing classes and generally navigating Penn.
To better student life on campus, we will work with student groups across Penn thatknow their constituencies best, and know the issues plaguing their respective groups. As members of the UA, we don’t pretend to be experts on all the issues and constituencies as Penn, but we are tasked with representing the student body, and we are in the unique position of having regular meetings with administrators. For this reason, we want to work with student groups to determine the needs of the students. We hope to expand access to student groups and other aspects of student life at Penn by lowering costs associated with these groups and activities and promoting diversity within organizations.
The community piece of our platform aims to situate the undergraduate student body and all of Penn in the context of the larger West Philadelphia community. Penn must interact with the local community in positive, not detrimental, manner. While this is largely an administrative focus, specifically regarding development of the physical campus and the surrounding areas, students have a role to play too. A program that we hope to reinstate is College Days, where students from area schools are brought to Penn to start to think about college from a young age.
We are running for UA President and Vice President because we have the perspective, experience, and vision to lead the UA and the student body at this pivotal time. We are passionate about this university and, when we see a problem, we don’t complain. We act. We hope to lead the undergraduate students in creating tangible change.
SAMARA WYANT is a College junior studying philosophy, politics, and economics and MAX GROVE is a Wharton sophomore studying finance and information systems. Wyant is the former Circulation Manager of the 133rd Board of The Daily Pennsylvanian. They are running for UA President and UA Vice President, respectively. You can find out more about their campaign at bit.ly/samaraandmaxforua. Visit pennstudgov.com from April 3-5 to vote.
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