Pan inTouch

TheDP Op-Ed:

Penn is a community of communities. For many of us, our Penn experience is defined by the limited circle of the groups we’re involved in, the majors we choose and the parties we go to. What’s missing is the sense that we are all part of a community of undergraduates at Penn who can achieve much more when working with fellow student groups or in neighborhoods foreign to us.

I will make Penn and Philadelphia a more vibrant home for all of us by creating physical spaces to congregate, reaching out to students on a face-to-face level and connecting groups to each other and to University resources. (Read More)

A PLACE TO BELONG:

● ARCH renovation follow through
● International student hub
● Prayer spaces
● Flexible upperclassmen meal plans to transform dining halls into a school-wide place of congregation
● On-campus late night parties and gatherings
● Increasing performing arts space funding and availability
● Late night dining options east of campus and in Engineering
● Waive background checks for local engagement in Philadelphia’s public schools

CONNECTING GROUPS:

● More collaborative campus-wide events
● Census 2010 mobilization via residential life in the coming weeks
● Quaker Day integration into residential life
● Integrating Penn with the community: Opening up dorms for local kids to go trick-or-treating
● Working with students/professors uninvolved with student government but engaged in problem solving learning courses and programs who are already doing research on improving Penn/Philly
● Integrating UA and UA Steering in terms of members and work

Interculturalism at Penn:

● Advertise and expand the intercultural fund to more groups/events types to promote truly intercultural events
● Bolster Cultural Diversity in the US requirement
● Improve common spaces, ie ARCH
● Engage noncultural-focused groups with interculturalism
● Hiring and retention of underrepresented faculty through a conducive environment for minorities, gathering data for class demands, and meeting with undergraduate deans who do the hiring

OUTREACH AND OPENNESS:

● Complete current “Text the UA” project (headed by Chris Cruz)
● Encourage resolutions to stem from UA Steering groups and Steering meetings
● Create custom materials by specific aspects of student life that explains what the UA is, what the UA has done in that specific aspect, and how we can work together
● Connect with Philly student governments especially to collaborate on policy issues
● Increase access to UA meeting content online
● Knock on every freshman door after NSO to introduce them to the UA and policy work at Penn