UPUA has announced that it will not renew the lease of its downtown office at 103 E. Beaver Ave., Suite 11. This does not come as a shock to many as, during the spring’s presidential campaign, the old office was frequently mentioned as an example of student money wasted. It has been previously written about here.

The UPUA press release has this to say about the closing of the downtown office:

There was an audit of the office done by Former President Gavin Keirans Internal Affairs Director during the 4^th Assembly about lack of use of the office. After the office was audited, it was clear that because there were no official set goals, plans and structure for the office, it was not used to its fullest potential.

One of the goals of this new assembly is to be fiscally responsible and not squander leftover funds. Such was the case at the end of spring semester when the bike share program was sent back to the drawing board. Ragland had this to say:

One of our goals as a student government is to be fiscally responsible with the Student Activity Fee money we are allocated. Therefore I do not want to see a repeat of what happened last year with the downtown office.

A very interesting turn indeed for UPUA. The closing of the office is a victory for those that felt it was an unnecessary extravagance, and a sign that President Ragland intends to be a little more fiscally responsible than his predecessor.