Community Service (Heeyoon Chang, Sushant Mukherjee):

COMMUNITY SERVICE REPRESENTATIVES
Responsible for:

• Organizing four (one per quarter) WGA-sponsored community service events
• Liaising/coordinating Cohort partnership with Philadelphia-based organization
• Planning events/projects with partner organization (one per quarter); such events/projects could be but are not limited to:
• Volunteer events
• Business services
• Fundraising
• Promoting the CS WGA and cohort events amongst their respective cohorts

COMMUNITY SERVICE CLUBS: Systematically leverage the National Net Impact Conference at Wharton to help CS Clubs, and vice versa
COMMUNITY SERVICE PRE-TERM: Design and implement a pre-term event that will draw first-year students into the Philadelphia community

Professional (Michele Luchejko, Jeff Brown):

• Schedule summer internship panels for September 2008
• Fairly allocate WGA funds to clubs needing subsidies and approve club budgets
• Researching feasibility to pair up incoming students with 2nd year “buddies” or “reference points” to research various jobs/industries
• Identifying ways to promote MBA “exploration” and “education” into new/ alternative/non-traditional careers—i.e. by making certain club events open to school population and not just club members.

Athletic (James Bentley, Sunil Tellis):

• 2nd annual big/little kickball tournament
• Back-to-school field-day social for 1st and 2nd year students
• One-day 2nd year flag football tournament to be held on a Friday in September

Social (Courtney Pace, Erin Vanderveldt):

• Provide social networking opportunities for students
• Increase interaction amongst first and second year students
• Enhance school spirit and student pride for Wharton
• Be transparent and ensure students are informed about upcoming events in advance
• Enable the social & special interest clubs to provide events for students

International & Cultural (Sami Youssef, Naveen Krishnamurthy):

• International Admit Buddy Program – In order to ease international students into the Wharton diaspora, we’re planning to develop an international buddy program to connect newly admitted international students gain a better understanding of life in the US and at Wharton.
• The Philadelphia Guide – With aid from the MBA program office and current international students, we plan to develop a comprehensive guide to address the specific needs of international students coming to Wharton. We intend to get this guide mailed to international students along with other mailings from the University of Pennsylvania’s Office of International Programs.
• International Student Orientation – We’ll be working with the Office of International Programs to investigate whether the Fall International Student Orientation can be extended to two days with additional immersion activities including a tour of Penn campus with stops at the Career Management Office, the MBA Program office, and the Office of International Programs.

Academic (Patrick Sullivan, George Holloway)

• Grade Non Disclosure: continue annual education efforts and voting on Grade Non Disclosure. Implement into WGA policy the will of the student body as expressed by the annual vote. Work with the Faculty and Administration to try to reach a common policy stance on the issue.
• Core Curriculum Rationalization: work with the faculty’s Curriculum Committee to understand what ways (if any) the core curriculum can be improved. Initiate the process to make change to any areas that are identified as able to be improved.
• Grading Best Practices: work with the MBA executive committee to institute blind grading (so that graders are not aware of the student’s name when grading an assignment) and grading transparency (the idea that Professors should be able and willing to explain how (s)he arrived at a students grade and that such an explanation corresponds to what the grading policies as articulated in the Professor’s syllabus).
• Additional initiatives: working to improve the access to and quality of the GIP programs, helping to implement the movement of DIP to March, taking a look at class availability (to see if there are enough seats being offered in key classes), continuation of the curriculum navigator project, and others.

Career (Kelly Ramsey, Jennifer Campbell)

• Increase the engagement of first year Cohort Career Reps with their cohorts and institutions of certain CAB activities.
• Encourage Career reps to build social capital in their Cohorts by sourcing opportunities or advice for fellow Cohort members
• Work with WGA club officers to increase the number of cross club networking events among professional clubs likely to do business in the future
• Make the Career reps experts on Career Management Office resources and policy, enabling them to answer more of their respective Cohorts questions directly
• Actively participate in the enhancement of recruitment activities including possible changes to DIP.

Information Systems (Dan McLean, Nathan Cheng)

Q1

• Roll out new WGA website
• Explore automating update of WGA website data
• Begin evaluation of WhartonLink

Q2

• Clean out old mailing lists
• Make decision on whether to continue supporting WhartonLink; notify users as necessary

Q3

• Overhaul mailing lists
• Assist clubs in creating their own websites using new WGA website nodes

Q4

• Create documentation for new website and related IS issues Hand off documentation to new IS reps

Intergovernmental (Peter Sizgoric)

• Improve integration and relations with other graduate and professional programs at the University of Pennsylvania
• Represent interests of Wharton / WGA at GAPSA meetings
• Create opportunities for non-Wharton students to participate in open events (e.g., Wharton Follies, WICS, Philly Fight Night, etc.)
• Increase the robustness of Wharton’s involvement in the Philadelphia community by working with other graduate and professional programs

Leadership (Ming Fang)

• Gather feedback from student body to identify preferences and needs in leadership development
• Create more impactful and personal leadership opportunities and events, with the aim to increase student engagement in hands-on leadership experiences
• Improve communication between the student body, the Leadership Office, and the Program Office on leadership initiatives
• Establish structure for the new Leadership Development Rep governing body. Increase responsibility, tangible presences, and institutional learning for the group
• Expand tangible leadership opportunities for 1st year students in cohort, extracurricular, and student government settings

Facilities (Brad Dakake)

• Dramatically expand the recycling options available to students in Huntsman Hall
• Investigate new ways to allocate study space
• Institute duplex printing as the default setting on all printers (with the option to print single-sided).

Diversity (Monisha Saran)

• Increase and promote awareness of all aspects of diversity, including race, ethnicity, cultural, sexual orientation, disability, and other.
• Facilitate opportunities to utilize diversity during the MBA experience
• Provide defined responsibilities/goals for First-year representatives; achieve participation early in the year
• Work with MBA Program Office to find opportunities to incorporate diversity into the core curriculum

Cohort Coordinator (David Kakembo)

• To get even more out of the Cohort representative roles, drive to get first years involved early, by publicizing these leadership positions early in Pre-term.
• Encourage the sharing of best practices that occur within individual cohorts with all other cohorts though Wharton Journal and quarterly meetings between the cohort representatives.
• Strengthen the level of formal interaction between first- and second-year cohorts. Encourage and facilitate both collaborative projects and events between ‘Big-Little’ cohorts in addition to current socials.

Alumni Affairs (Chris Luhur, Jing Zhang)

Q1

• Cohort Rep Initial Meeting
• WhartonConnect Launch & Signup

Q2

• Class of '09 Pledge Kickoff Party
• Alumni/Student Holiday Mixer

Q3

• Class of '09 Pledge Happy Hour
• Continue WhartonConnect Promotion & Signups

Q4

• Class of '09 Pledge Thank You Reception
• Alumni/Student Thank You Happy Hour