Penn Undergraduate Assembly - Your Student Government » New Business

Senior Regalia Rental Program

wsmith — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 23:31:51 +0000

Congratulations on your upcoming graduation, Class of 2012!

Should you want to be eligible to receive commencement robes and caps from the Undergraduate Assembly’s new Regalia Rental Program, please enter your information in the google doc below. After filling out this form, be on the lookout for an email regarding your rental status and any other pertinent information regarding robes! Also, please be aware that unfortunately, due to inventory, not everyone will be able to receive a rental this spring. Thank you!

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dE9WVEprT2dEdFVVbDRKbE5HZVhMb1E6MQ

UA Presidential Debates 2012

Cynthia Ip — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 19:35:21 +0000

Hear from President and VP candidates before you cast your vote! All Penn undergraduates are invited to the upcoming UA Presidential debates. Questions are open to the public during the second half of all debates.

March 18 (Sunday) 1:00-2:30PM
Student Activities at Penn Presidential Debate
Hosts: RAB, SAAC, DP Sports, SPEC, SAC
Location: Golkin Room, Houston Hall

March 20 (Tuesday) 7:30-9:00PM
UA Steering Vice Presidential Debate
Host: UA Steering
Location: Harrison Heyer Sky Lounge

March 21 (Wednesday) 5:30-7:00PM
Civic and Political Engagement Presidential Debate
Hosts: CHAC, PennDems, College Republicans, PoCo, PVS, Honor Council
Location: Civic House

March 24 (Saturday) 5-6:30PM
Diversity at Penn Presidential Debate
Hosts: APSC, Lambda, LC, UMC, UMOJA, PCUW, AIS, PRISM
Location: LGBT Center

March 25 (Sunday) 2:00-3:30PM
Daily Pennsylvanian Presidential and Vice Presidential Debate
Host: the Daily Pennsylvanian
Location: Philo Halls (4th Floor College Hall)

All debates are brought to you by the Commission on Presidential Debate. To contact the Commission, please email Cynthia Ip at cynip@sas.upenn.edu.

Video recordings of the debate will be available here as well as on theDP.com.

UA Passes 2012-2013 Budget!

wsmith — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 05:41:57 +0000

On Sunday, February 26th, the UA passed its $2 million budget for 2012-2013 academic year.

This year, the UA received a 3.9% increase in our budget, which amounted to $2.04 million in total. Some key features of the budget include:

A major increase of 7.49% in student group funding, which means near $70,000 extra for SAC in response to the increase in SAC recognized groups.
The new $39,950 Skimmer Fest budget consolidates collaboration between the Class Boards and SPEC in organizing a campus-wide event centered around athletics and class spirit.
A 16.7% decrease in the UA’s budget due to cost-savings in administrative expenses and PennApps Labs, allowing money to be channeled directly into programming for students.
A 35% decrease in the UA’s Contingency Fund given the availability of leftover funds to be rolled over from the past year’s allocation.
A 26.7% increase in PennCORP scholarship to meet the demand of student financial need.

The entire budget can be viewed here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0AmpLuhsh1-lQdEtTaEhUU2×2cDhLMFNXVjRvOVM3U1E&output=html

Thanks to the budget committee for all of their hard work!

UA Budget Meeting 2012

wsmith — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 21:59:19 +0000

The UA will hold its annual budget meeting this Sunday at 6PM in Huntsman Hall 240.

The UA and budget committee welcome and highly encourage the student body to come out and voice your opinions on your budget.

The budget can be viewed here.

UA GBM- February 19

wsmith — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 22:04:57 +0000

Please find the meeting packet and agenda for this week’s GBM here: https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1zjjN2TjVjZElbHjeg_vrGjIWLrwHyVfl7AQ013-YD4A

This will be the second presentation of the 2012-2013 UA Budget, which can be accessed here.

The meeting will be in Hunstman Hall 250 at 9PM.

UA GBM- February 12

wsmith — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 19:22:19 +0000

All undergraduates are welcome to attend this week’s GBM on Sunday, February 12, at 9:00PM in the Ben Franklin Room, Houston Hall.

This will be the first presentation of the 2012-2013 UA Budget. The budget can be viewed here.

The agenda and meeting packet for the GBM can be found here.

UA GBM February 5

wsmith — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 17:02:13 +0000

Please join the UA for its weekly GBM this Sunday at 2:00PM in Huntsman Hall F55. Please note the change of location and time (for this week only)!

The meeting packet can be found here!

TCPW Announcement

wsmith — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 22:32:16 +0000

The Trustees’ Council of Penn Women is an international network of Penn Alumnae. These leaders, by power of their example, support, foster, and promote the advancement of women and women’s issues within the University, thus enriching the University community as a whole.

To mark the organization’s quarter-century milestone, the TCPW 25th Anniversary Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Advising has been established to recognize

undergraduate Faculty advisors – female or male – who have distinguished themselves in providing assistance and advice to their advisee students and who have made a significant impact on the academic experience of these students.

Nominations of standing faculty may be made by an undergraduate or any member of Penn’s community for someone other than oneself, and must be submitted together with an essay – not to exceed 250 words in length – supporting the nomination. The deadline for these nominations will be February 15, 2012. Nominations should be sent to provost-ed@upenn.edu. The two winners of this award will receive $2500 each and will be celebrated at the Spring meeting of TCPW- the 25^th Anniversary meeting.

A Statement to the Student Body from the UA Executive Board

wsmith — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 09:33:32 +0000

To the Penn campus community:

This past October, the UA held an event for newly elected members. Although we felt we took proactive steps to make the event safe and respectful, concerns were raised about it. As such, we requested that the University investigate and settle the matter. Today, we are communicating to you the results of that investigation because you, as our stakeholders, deserve to know the facts and what lies ahead.

The UA was found to have violated the University’s Antihazing Policy by creating an environment of uncertainty and an imbalanced power dynamic that included:

asking new members to participate in a scavenger hunt, a portion of which was blindfolded;
quizzing new members on parliamentary procedure; and
verbal confrontation.

The UA was also found to have violated the University’s Alcohol and Drug Policy by providing alcohol to minors, non-freshmen included.

This is very serious and something for which we are sincerely apologetic. As such, we would like to make you fully aware of the ramifications and our thoughts.

The UA has been sanctioned in a manner reflective of the severity of its transgressions. As such, the UA will:

Attend educational sessions on alcohol and hazing;
Join other campus partners to help lead and support efforts to educate students and the Penn community about hazing and alcohol; and
Submit any plans for programs or events involving welcoming or educating new members to the Office of Student Affairs for consultation and approval.

As you can imagine, this process and the results have been quite challenging for us. Especially troubling were reports of forced consumption of alcohol and the binding of students to chairs, which were dismissed as false in the course of the investigation.We truly intended to create an environment in which everyone could feel comfortable, and the investigation found that we did consider the health and wellness of our new members in planning these welcome activities.

Through this process, we have learned that our most fundamental fault was in creating the environment where individuals could take liberties and where social pressures could be felt so as to amount to hazing. We are deeply regretful, and we hope that by bringing to light and to public discussion the seriousness of all forms and degrees of hazing, we can move forward and create positive change.

As always, you can reach out to us at http://pennua.org.

UA Exec

UA GBM- 1/29/12

wsmith — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 18:19:21 +0000

Please join the UA for its GBM this Sunday, January 29th, 2012. The meeting will be held at 9PM in the Golkin Room, second floor Houston Hall.

The agenda can be found here