International Student Financial Aid Resolution- In this resolution, the UA affirmed the importance of a socio-economically diverse international student body and the indispensable role of financial aid in ensuring this diversity, committed to partnering with Alumni Relations both to raise awareness of the financial need of international students and commits to partnering with Alumni Relations both to raise awareness of the financial need of international students and raise funds for this specific purpose, and urged the University to continue increasing international student financial aid based on the success of University fundraising efforts and to move towards need-blind admissions for all students, including international students, within a reasonable time frame. Questions about this project? Contact our Speaker, Cynthia Ip, at speaker@pennua.org

As always, you can find everything discussed at this week’s meeting here: https://docs.google.com/View?id=dnhzxtk_17d6xf3sdt

Flu Vaccine Clinic- The UA co-sponsored the 2011-2012 Penn Flu Vaccine Clinics. Thus far, SHS has administered flu vaccines to nearly 2,000 students via 3 successful mass immunization clinics. They hope to vaccinate about 1,000 more faculty, staff and students at their last clinic on Thursday, October 27^th at the ARCH. The UA, through marketing and “working the Walk” was key in spreading the word about the flu clinics and helped to significantly boost attendance. This collaborative effort, which involved student volunteers, student- and campus-organization co-sponsors, and Student Health staff, will likely serve as a model for future public health interventions at Penn. Questions about this project? Contact our Student Life Director, Jon Monfred, at studentlife@pennua.org

Holiday Absence Policy Resolution- This resolution encouraged professors to observe the University’s policy on religious holidays. Working with PRISM and the Council of Undergraduate Deans, this resolution created a letter to be sent to the faculty reminding them of the policy at the beginning of each semester. Questions about this project? Contact our Academic Affairs Director, Abe Sutton, at academics@pennua.org

Federal Government Pell Grant Funding Support Resolution- The UA affirmed support for the Federal Pell Grant program and sent a letter to Sen. Pat Toomey and expressed to him the importance of Pell Grants to students at Penn. Questions about this project? Contact our President, Tyler Ernst, at president@pennua.org

As always, you can find everything discussed at this week’s meeting here: https://docs.google.com/View?id=dnhzxtk_153×2hgdf

Penn Park Tennis Court Fees Eliminated! The UA worked with Penn Athletics to remove the user-fee for undergraduates at the Hamlin Tennis Courts of Penn Park. We are happy to report that it will no longer cost $5/user per hour of reservation. That said, it is extremely important to remember to still make a reservation before using the facilities. One can do so here: http://penntenniscenter.com/reservations.html Questions about this project? Contact our CPE director, Dan Bernick at cpe@pennua.org

As always, you can find everything discussed at this week’s meeting here: https://docs.google.com/View?id=dnhzxtk_9fw9ms2g9

Fraternity Recycling Completion- The UA is thrilled to announce that OSFA has created the signs to go on all recycling dumpsters and will be distributing them via the eco-reps program along with an information campaign about how to make the most of the recycling possibilities at Penn. Questions about this project? Contact our HSF Director, Sam Bieler at hsf@pennua.org

New Penn Apps Labs project- The UA voted to prioritize the creation of an online funding application, which would let student groups apply for event funding in one centralized location. This will lead to more resources for student groups, less waste of your group’s time, and most importantly, groups will have easier access to more money from more funding sources. Questions about this project? Contact our Online Services Coordinator, Matt Rosenberg, at online@pennua.org

As always, you can find everything discussed at this week’s meeting here: https://docs.google.com/View?id=dnhzxtk_13hfp8c3fw

Major Changes Coming to Penn Dining

After listening Penn students voice their concerns about dining , the UA is thrilled to announce that after much lobbying and advocacy on behalf of the student body, changes are coming to the way YOU dine. Here are four major points:

1) Taste of Penn Dining Event- This event sponsored by Penn Dining and the UA will allow students on dining plans to vote for foods that they would like to see in our dining halls. This is a great gesture on the part of Penn Dining and it will truly be your voices being heard.

2) New Dining Plans! Based off of student feedback from the UA and focus groups, there will be a major restructuring of dining plans. Plans will now be reduced, more customizable, and incremental additions will be available. Here are the plans:

Freshman Plans

• EAT Plan (Eat AnyTime)- Unlimited meals and $100 dining dollars
• BEN Plan (Balanced and Eating Naturally)- 370 meals and about $425 dining dollars total
• BFF Plan (Best Food Fit)- 200 meals and $800 dining dollars

Upperclassmen Meals

• OMW Plan (One Meal Works) – 175 meals and $1,150 dining dollars
• CAP Plan (Club and Activities Plan) – 100 meals and $1200 dining dollars
• FIT Plan (Food In Time) 75 meals and $700 dining dollars
• GTG Plan (Good To Go) 50 meals and $2,o00 dining dollars

3) New Dining Hall in McClelland- In partnership with the College Houses, Penn is creating a new and expanded dining experience at McClelland which will expand dining options for over 1400 residents of the Quad. The renovations of McClelland occurred during the summer of 2011 and will open on Thursday, September 7th. Cafe hours are below:

Full service: Monday – Friday 8 am to 8 pm

Express and retail grocery: Monday through Thursday 8 am to 10 pm; Friday 8 am, to 8 pm

Saturday and Sunday, Full service, express and retail grocery – Noon to 6:30 pm

Options include:

• Staff to prepare food while you wait (crepes, omelets, pasta toss, etc.)
• Continental breakfast (waffles, fresh fruit, yogurt)
• Toast and bagel bar
• Salad bar and soup station

There is also be a grocery and express food section with grab and go salads, sandwiches and sushi.  Also created is new soft seating and additional tables and dining space designed for maximum flexibility to accommodate a variety of uses.

4) Dining Advisory Board- Thanks to student feedback and the hard work and dedication of our student life committee, the UA recently passed the Dining Advisory Board Resolution. The DAB is composed of students from different organizations and stakeholders such as Hillel, MSA, RAB, and the College Houses who will meet regularly with representatives from Penn Dining, Bon Appetit, and Business Services. The dining advisory board will improve the quality of dining for student at Penn so that you can have it your way.

Want to get involved with great change like this at Penn? Have any ideas you want to share? It’s easy! The UA wants your feedback, so please make sure to check out pennua.org/outreach and get involved!

Anyone living in Harrison can pick up the carts from the Info Desk and sign them out for up to an hour. There are six carts in total, with a limit of one per person. Hopefully, if the program is popular, it will expand to the other high rises and eventually across all on-campus housing!

The UA passed a resolution on reservations, accepted by the Vice-Provost of University Life, which:

• Mandated the Student Government Info Session be given priority access to the Cohen Auditorium,
• Insisted that Perelman Quad not “upgrade” room reservations without prior notice and consent of groups booking rooms. Once a room is assigned, barring priority-order conflicts, that room should not be reassigned.
• In the case of reassignments, the UA asked VPUL Facilities to not reassign any room assigned to a student group without notifying the affected groups at least sixteen (16) calendar days in advance of the booking.
• Ensured that notice of early bookings for the next academic year (usually made available in March) be communicated to the UA and to SAC and distributed widely to the undergraduate population.

These policies are slated to go into effect in Fall 2009.

The short move-out time was first protested against on Facebook; the UA responded and issued a 700-person survey, which paved the way for a resolution on Move-Out in the Fall Semester of this year. After that, and extensive discussions with Housing Services, the move-out deadline was eventually moved to 5pm on the day after exams.

In addition, we will survey all undergraduate residents of the College Houses and Sansom Place on this year’s move-out process to measure the effectiveness of the change and field suggestions for further improvement. However, looking at anecdotal evidence, it appears as if the change has worked very well for all involved!

Any students with questions on the policy change or other elements of Move-Out should email moveout@exchange.upenn.edu.

Allocation to different branches in the 09-10 Budget

Every year the UA is given around $1.8 million to allocate to the branches of student government for the upcoming year – money that funds Spring Fling, major speakers, Hey Day, Sophomore Skimmer, free New York Times, and, of course, every student group on campus. Our money comes from the Trustees, and is pegged to the General Fee.

This year, of course, the economy ran into a little trouble, but the General Fee went up by 3.9% and so the UA was given an extra $67,000 to distribute. This was important; with budget cutting in every department, students can’t rely on non-student funding sources any more. Plus, the UA Budget Committee and PSG Treasurers found nearly $50,000 in savings from careful cutting of unnecessary and less popular programs.

In the end, our increase and new savings meant that:

• SAC gets another $25,000 boost to student group funding.
• SPEC got more than $28,000 extra for a better Spring Fling concert, SPEC-TRUM concert, and Fall/Spring Major Speakers.
• The UA began funding PennArts and PennGreen, two new and exciting freshman pre-orientation programs.

The full budget is online or in a printer friendly version, as you prefer. For the full low-down on the budget, check after the jump.

The new budget provides for some exciting new programs:

• For the first time PennArts and PennGreen will have institutional funding, ensuring their long-term survival. This is part of the UA’s commitment to the Pre-Orientation program in general: we partly fund every pre-orientation program that Penn offers.
• SCUE, the academic policy branch of the PSG, can launch the next of its acclaimed and influential White Papers thanks to a boost of $6,000.
• The Wine Tasting Preceptorial is back to full funding, thanks to cuts and economies made by the organizers.
• The UA-New York Times Readership Program will be fully funded this year.
• SPEC can launch a new Spring Crafts Fair, following on the success of their Fall fair.
• SPEC-TRUM now has access to a $6,000 discretionary co-sponsorship fund for minority groups with new speaker events in need of funding.
• La Unidad Latina and the Kappa Scholarship Ball are now both funded by SPEC-TRUM for the first time.

Plus, the most successful and popular SPEC events got a funding boost:

• $45,000 extra for the Spring Fling Concert, securing even better talent for next year and keeping the concert in the high-capacity Franklin Field.
• $7,500 extra for Spring Fling itself, to improve the Carnival and general Fling security.
• $8,000 more for SPEC Connaissance major speakers, allowing us to keep high-profile speakers like Madeline Albright and Anderson Cooper coming to campus!
• $6,000 extra for SPEC-TRUM Concert production and talent, ensuring the SPEC-TRUM Concerts will continue to build on their impressive reputation.

Most importantly for many of you, SAC’s budget has increased for the tenth consecutive year, with an extra $25,573 for student groups.

Finally, the Budget Committee was able to find just over $47,000 in savings to pay for these significant budget boosters (unlike another government, we actually balance our budget!). Many of these savings were hard to make, but all were essential to ensure a healthy budget going into the uncertain future:

• $15,000 was saved by cutting the Film Society Speaker event.
• $10,000 was saved by reducing talent costs for both the Fall and Spring Jazz + Grooves shows.
• $5550 was saved by reducing usage of the Dolphin Server (web space for student groups).
• $5200 was saved by cutting SPEC “Philly Week”.
• $3085 was saved by ruthlessly cutting advertising and food costs across all student government budgets.
• $2665 was saved by eliminating the SPEC Special Events Oscars Party.
• $1700 was saved by the NEC reducing their ad purchase for elections.
• $1,525 was saved by reducing hospitality costs in the Spring Fling concert.
• $1,500 was saved by halving the number small shows produced by SPEC Concerts.
• $780 was saved by scaling down SCUE Education Week.

The Budget is prepared by a lengthy process, which involves the UA Budget Committee (consisting of the Treasurer and two upperclassmen UA members elected at the beginning of the year) consulting with all PSG branch Treasurers, then preparing a recommendation that is considered, amended, and ultimately approved by the UA General Body of representatives at the meeting immediately before Spring Break. This year, the Budget Committee’s recommendation was affirmed by the General Body without amendment. For more questions on the budget, contact the Budget Committee at budget@pennua.org.

Do comment below about the final result. Did we cut something we shouldn’t have? Or fund something useless? Let us know! It’s your money – how we spend it is in your hands!

Unfortunately, owing to Philadelphia’s high crime rate, it’s very difficult for dining facilities to remain open late at night. Most recently, we saw this when the 24-hour Philly Diner on 39th and Walnut, having been the site of a fatal shooting over Winter Break in 2005 and most recently another shooting this past Spring, agreed to close its doors at 1am Sunday to Wednesday and at 2am on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.

With Philly Diner’s closure, only very few vendors, such as Wawa, McDonalds and the Fresh Grocer, serve food on campus after 1am. Less than a day after the early closure deal was announced, the UA began to forcefully lobby for additional late-night options.

We agreed in large part with the DP’s editorial:

Now, with Philly Diner’s earlier hours, the only eateries left open are fast-food places ill-suited for large groups or students who want to study while grabbing a bite. At 2 a.m., most students at Penn are still awake. Registered parties end at that time and few privately hosted parties end earlier. After a night out, most students need to wind down. And students spending all night studying need a place to refuel in the middle of the night.

That being said, the UA also supported the decision to close Philly Diner early, as it was guided by honest and thoughtful considerations of student safety. In planning for a new late night option, the UA has insisted that safety should be Penn’s highest priority to ensure that incidents like those surrounding Philly Diner won’t happen again.

The UA has lobbied the Division of Public Safety and Real Estate Services for new late-night dining options; we’re confident that at least one new offering will be available soon. Watch this space for details!