by Zachary Roseman
A group of over forty students attended the UA meeting on Sunday night with a problem that so affected them that they were ready to give up the entirety of their night in order to sit through the meeting and wait patiently for the opportunity to be heard. They came with a purpose, with conviction, and with a great sense of urgency. They knew that as the elected officers of our student body, UA members are charged with representing undergraduate interests, their interests, to the University.
Sadly, the UA members must have missed that memo. They were given a golden opportunity to take a stand on an important issue, much like the University of Pennsylvania Student Government did when it issued a referendum calling for the “complete and immediate withdrawal of troops from Vietnam.” They chose instead to hide behind rhetoric and procedural shenanigans, deflecting criticism with cries of lack of preparation and insufficient time; another venue, another time — anywhere but here. They debated not the issue at hand, but whether that issue deserved debate. They had the audacity to say that had they allowed said debate the room would have turned into a circus, as if the mere presence of non-UA members degraded the very legitimacy of the meeting itself. They argued that the UA must steer clear of political debates, but by their inaction they have made a statement that can be taken as nothing less than political in nature. They posited that every speaker who comes to campus has an inalienable right to free speech, yet they stifled the speech of those who only asked them to listen.
In response to an email I wrote Sunday night expressing my extreme dissatisfaction and embarrassment at what occurred, I was told that they believed they were upholding the “integrity” of the UA by deciding not to hear the voices that assembled before them. I challenge them to explain how the silencing of their constituents demonstrates their integrity as a body. I further challenge them to explain how it is “inappropriate” for us, the tuition-paying students of this university, to criticize the decisions and beliefs of our professors. Finally, I challenge them to explain how their inaction on Sunday night can be construed as anything less than cowardice.
,p>When did the sole visible role of the Undergraduate Assembly, the representative assembly of the student body, become fixing the laundry machines?
Zachary Roseman is a College freshman from West Hempstead, Ny. He can be reached at Roseman@sas.upenn.edu.
An RSS feed of The Spin is available