This week’s UPUA meeting, like the celebration of new life that comes with Spring, saw the induction of new members and the election of new chairs. The meeting began with a the swearing in of newly elected President Ragland, Vice President Smith, and the new assembly.

The first position on the agenda was the vote for Chair of assembly. Last year’s chair Mark Cannon and Internal Affairs Committee member Jessica Pelliciotta stated their individual cases. The vote resulted in a 19-19 tie; the revote resulted in a 20-18 win for Pelliciotta.

Next up, the battle for Chair for Student Life & Diversity began. This time it was Noah Karn vs. Katie Perugini. Both candidates had similar experience and made a similar case for their election. Ultimately, Karn took the seat after a 15-2-21 vote.

Kelly Terefenko, Lienard Chang, and the unexpected freshman Marissa Wilson ran against each other for Internal Development Chair. Terefenko reassured the assembly of her experience in ID and shared some new ideas for the Committee. Chang addressed his lack of ID experience and stressed his competency with his campaign slogan “Chang you can believe in.” Wilson spoke with honesty about the difficulty or leading ID and its sometimes caddy nature and her hopes to mitigate fighting; however, she received ample questioning from the assembly. Terefenko ultimately won with a large majority.

The Chairs of both Programming and Governmental Affairs ran unopposed; Chrissy Boggs and TJ Bard now hold those positions, respectively.

The final position of Chair of Facilities saw three-people run: Haley McClernon had previously served on the Committee and had some great, concrete ideas for the future. Blake Bonnewell also had facilities experience. Additionally, Katie Perugini tried again to secure a Chair. But in the end, McClernon took it home.

After the election of assembly officers, all three of the resolutions on the table–Finals Frenzy Funding, Reform Academic Computing Systems (investment in a replacement for e-Lion!), and Homecoming Registration–were passed after some debate. Afterwards, the new UPUA seal was revealed, which you can see to the right.

Ragland had this to say after his first meeting as President: “No days off. Now that the assembly has leadership and Colleen and I are sworn in, we will bring a unified effort to tackle the initiatives of our platform and assembly and to improve student life.”

Hopefully, that will actually happen.