Everyone’s favorite student government, the University Park Undergraduate Association — or UPUA — will hold their first general assembly meeting of the semester tonight. Expect an unusually large turnout of six students at this evening’s meeting as there is some hefty legislation on the agenda that will be debated and voted on passed unanimously.

You can be sure that the UPUA i>clicker rental program will be commended at the meeting, as it shed it’s label of being a complete failure and has now seemingly justified the $6,513.05 that it spent last year to buy 215 clickers. Whether it was the lack of an effective advertising campaign for the program, or the fact that students tend to ignore everything UPUA does, only 60 of the 200 clicker rentals were claimed last year. But this past week, all the clickers were rented out within just a day and a half, which by all accounts is a great success for the program that helps 200 out of 40,000 undergraduates.

Apparently, Academic Affairs Chair Ricky Pooler emailed professors who use i>clickers and asked them to tell their classes about the rental program, which created the huge spike in interest. It’s really a head scratcher as to why they didn’t do that last year, but better late than never I guess.

On to the legislation:

Policy 03-07: Housing Database Funding

The first piece of legislation on the agenda is Policy 03-07, which aims to fund a UPUA project that will revamp the off-campus housing database. The database update has been in the works since last year and they hope to get the project underway this year to provide students with a website that is easier to navigate and more technologically advanced than the current database, which is outdated and — for lack of better word — clumsy.

The policy will commit $8,000 of UPUA’s budget to cover the IT fees for the upgrade if it passes. And of course — since it’s UPUA — it will.

Resolution 05-07: FreshFest Funding 

The second piece and final piece of legislation on the agenda for tonight’s meeting is Resolution 05-07, which will allocate funds for an annual event at East Halls that provides freshmen with food while informing them about UPUA and student government, or as I remember it from my freshman year: free pizza. The event will cost roughly $1,600 from the student life budget.

It should be a good start to another productive year for UPUA, so as always, be sure to follow @OnwardState for live updates from the meeting.