With zero pieces of legislation voted on last night and only three weeks left in UPUA’s seventh assembly, one could say that our student leaders are starting to act like the lame ducks.

President Lennartz began her report by addressing State Patty’s Day, reinforcing her support for the alcohol free zone this weekend, although nobody was exactly surprised at her stance. I was just impressed that she didn’t bring up her starring role in the State Patty’s Day video. I know how hard it is for me to not talk about that time I was an extra in The Perks of Being a Wallflower, so I can only assume it took mass amounts of self control to not bring up her own celeb status.

She also clarified that the money used to pay off bars on State Patty’s Day did not come from any sort of student funding but rather from the borough, the police, and last year’s parking fees.

Sam Richards, a popular professor and self-described iconoclast at Penn State, came to give a special presentation to the assembly about issues such as diversity, sexual assault, and gender issues.

Richards began by commending UPUA on their anti-State Patty’s Day stance and said he was “impressed by [their] willingness to work to get this thing under control.”

“To those not fully on board with getting State Patty’s under control, in a couple years it won’t exist. This should allow you to feel better about just shutting it down now,” Richards said.

Moving onto diversity, Richards said that in order for any change to actually occur within UPUA and subsequently Penn State, people need to be motivated and “need to really want a diverse community where people connect across many cultures. You have to see the value in it.”

Additionally he challenged us students to “step up and demand more talk about sexual assault.” He said that if we used the same amount of energy that we put towards THON into talking about and stopping sexual assault, we could eliminate it at Penn State.

The final part of the meeting was an open forum for assembly member to talk about the strengths and weakness of UPUA and how it can be improved for the next assembly. Almost everybody had different ideas that I’m sure they will pass on to the new representatives for the eighth assembly.

Elias Warren Quote of the Week

I know that there haven’t been any Elias Warren Quote of the Weeks lately, but it’s not entirely due to my laziness. There were a couple weeks there when Elias Warren just lost his touch, humor-wise. This week however, he came back in full force by saying, “I’m somewhat Hispanic so I have some spice in my blood.” It kind of reminded me of when Charlie Sheen was relevant and spoke of his tiger blood. He then invited everybody, including the press, to come to Taco Bell with him, and while I did attend that Taco Bell trip, that’s another story entirely.

Tie Wars: Ted Ritsick vs. Dave Harrington

Once again, there were a surprisingly low number of ties worn by the members of the assembly. I suppose with only three weeks left, people feel as though they no longer need to dress to impress. Therefore, with very few options to choose from, the winner of this week’s tie war is Ted’s “fifty shades of blue” tie. I wish that the rest of the members of the assembly would either wear ties or stay around after the meeting long enough for me to take a picture of their ties so the competition was a little bit fairer.

Ted Ritsick’s Tie

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dave Harrington’s Tie