UA to become more proactive, Liu says
The Undergraduate Association had its first Council meeting last Wednesday, discussing nominations to the Committee on Academic Performance, approving the budget for the year, and changing the Financial Board’s bylaws and procedures to sanction funding violations.
Sophia Liu ’17 led the meeting. After a medical emergency forced her to temporarily turn over responsibilities to VP Daysi Gomez ’18, she returned to MIT on Saturday and resumed her role as UA President.
“It was very nice to see people walking in [to the meeting],” Liu commented.
In an interview after the meeting Liu outlined her four main goals for the next year: keeping talent in the UA, building a good relationship with Vice President for Student Life Suzy Nelson, continuing respectful relationships with administrators, and becoming more responsive to student needs.
In particular, Liu hopes that the UA becomes much more active: “We often wait and discuss things that could just be done. We should make a lot of little things happen.” Liu gave the example of dorms having many good ideas that would benefit the entire undergraduate community.
Liu’s most public project last year was The Byte, a weekly newsletter that advertised events around campus. This role has now shifted to the secretary, Alexa Martin ’19 who will send out the first Byte next week.
The Council is in charge of supervising the UA. It approves major UA actions such as funding, nominations, and amendments. It is unusual in that the UA has no control over its membership: it is formed by a representative of every dorm (usually the president), four members of the Inter-Fraternity Council, three members of the Pan-Hellenic Association, one member of the Independent Living Group Council, and one off-campus representative.