At today’s weekly GBM, the UA funded $951 of Penn’s sole undergraduate Lunar New Year celebration, led by a team of dedicated individuals, including UA member Amanda Young. The organization that has traditionally hosted the event pulled out at the last minute, and upon learning of this, an ad-hoc group of students immediately met to ensure that the most important celebration in many countries makes a strong presence at Penn.

Authored by Vinay Rao, Sakina Zaidi, and G.J. Melendez-Torres, the UA also resolved to improve the academic environment for students within testing situations by making a few changes such as ensuring left-handed desks, increased invigilators, adequate desk space, and clear time displays.

Finally, Associate Member Colin Kavanaugh and the Student Life committee is working with the University to prevent identity fraud by promoting the opportunity for students to change their PIN numbers away from the current Social Security Number-based PIN.

Please tell us your thoughts, and check out the full meeting minutes.

At yesterday’s Sunday General Body Meeting, the UA passed three documents. You can find the full meeting minutes here!

Through the Omnibus Recycling Resolution, the UA:

In the ASL resolution, the UA

Finally, the Bylaws Amendment:

Check out the meeting minutes here!

The agenda for the UA meeting on Sunday, November 8, 2009 at 9PM can be accessed here: http://docs.google.com/View?id=dcdm2fpq_293cvgxzjg8

Highlights include: 

• PennCard Pin Resolution, authored by Colin Kavanaugh
• MERT Housing Resolution, authored by Andrew Lum and Marshall Bright
• Letter to Faculty  RE: Textbooks authored by GJ Melendez-Torres and Faye Cheng

The meeting will be in the Ben Franklin Room of Houston Hall.

Please note: The following meeting on Sunday, November 15, 2009 is dedicated to discussion constitutional reform of the UA.

…that may be so, but it was UA Representative Cornelius Range that worked to secure our “intellectual property rights” as Penn student this year.

First floated during the 2008 Fall Ivy Council Colloquium, the issue caught the attention of Cornelius and UA Associate Members Angela Poe, Wendy Cai, and G.J. Melendez-Torres. With about 30% of Penn’s undergraduate population involved in research, the UA felt it essential to tighten up Penn’s policies on student intellectual property rights. Over the next year the UA and SCUE will work with the University to condense and clarify its policy regarding the intellectual property rights of students, as well as under what conditions student work becomes the property of professors.

Through a project led by UA members Jordan Mendel and G.J. Melendez-Torres, the UA worked to maintain ties with the Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships (CURF) to spread awareness and knowledge of undergraduate research opportunities to Penn students, so that all students who might be interested in a research position understand how to obtain one. The project came before the body in the form of a policy update at the beginning of the year, and a resolution more recently.

The UA is working on two initiatives to help. This fall, the UA will work with CURF to hold lab open houses in SEAS and basic science departments in SAS.  Second, the UA plans to hold small research fairs with a CURF research advisor to the college houses on campus, including the Quad, Hill, and the high rises.

Finally, the UA is maintaining contact with SCUE’s CURF working group.  This year, SCUE and the UA worked to create the CURF Undergradate Advisory Board.