The UA has released its 2009 Annual Report, a comprehensive overview of its work over the last year in general and last semester in particular. This website will be updated in the next weeks with the complete text of the Report, but check out the consolidated and printable publication here!
In its ninth year of existence, the University’s Committee on Manufacturing Responsibility (CMR) met five times, with UA Representative Grant Dubler as its student voice.
Grant and the rest of the committee were charged with ensuring compliance with the University’s Code of Workplace Conduct for manufacturers licensed to produce products with the Penn logo.
To do this, the CMR works with two organizations– the Workers Rights Consortium and the Fair Labor Association– that, among other things, help Universities monitor compliance of manufacturers. Penn was surprised to find that Russell Athletics had failed to disclose a company-owned manufacturing plant in Honduras. The CMR determined that Russell was not compliant, and recommmended that the University not renew Russell Athletics’ license. President Guttmann has indicated that she will accept the Committee’s recommendation.
Full details in the CMR Report from the Almanac.
Happy first day of Ramadan!
Muslims are required to fast during the daylight hours of the holy month of Ramadan, which overlaps with Fall semester. This means that Muslims at Penn with dining plans are at a disadvantage; dining halls aren’t open before sunrise.
That’s why the UA, led by UA Representative (now Treasurer) Sakina Zaidi, secured free breakfasts for observant Muslims during Ramadan after unanimously passing a resolution to give Muslims “Fast Food” for Ramadan. The meals will be handed out during the evening meal of Iftar, and are funded by the Office of the Chaplain and Penn Dining Services.
In addition, the MSA has announced its intention to have a memorial banquet on 9/11, to which President Gutmann and student leaders will be invited, as a direct result of this project!
Many freshmen have indicated an interest in the PennPass. On the face of it, it’s a great deal. No tokens! A mere $280 per semester for unlimited trips on SEPTA! And this is a 10% discount from four monthly passes!
Except it’s still not a good deal for most undergraduates – to break even on the Pass, you have to take SEPTA at least twice every day (including weekends) on average. Check out below the fold for the math.
That being said, the PennPass is a great and convienent deal for our small but significant commuter undergraduate population. But it’s not a good deal for those living on campus; not even the most dedicated urbanite travels into Center City and back every single day of the week for the whole semester.
The UA will continue to lobby for a good deal for undergraduates across this city from SEPTA – hopefully with SEPTA’s transition to a tokenless system we will finally see a PennPass that works for undergrads!
On Tuesday, SEPTA announced the greater Philadelphia-area’s public transit system will be synched with the uber-cool Google Transit.
According to Anthony Campisi’s article for PlanPhilly, the “service connects the schedules of SEPTA trains, subways and light rail and trolley routes with Google Maps, allowing passengers to type in their starting location, desired end point and the date and time of their trip. The system then provides them with directions on which routes to take.”
While Google launched the Google Transit platform in 2007, SEPTA did not jump on board (pun intended?) until now. Anthony Campisi also notes that SEPTA has made the scheduling information it prepared for Google available to the public at septa.org/developer
