After spending this past year as UPUA’s Vice President, it appears that soon-to-be UPUA president Katelyn Mullen is ready for the next step. Mullen and her running mate, Brenden Dooley, are running unopposed in the upcoming UPUA elections, but that doesn’t mean the two are short of good ideas for the student body. Here are a few of the ideas Mullen and Dooley had for the upcoming 8th Assembly:

• Information technology upgrades: Basically, the technology support on campus sucks, and thankfully, Mullen and Dooley both realize this. As a member of the Student Technology Advisory Committee (STAC) for the 7th assembly, Mullen and the committee identified ten technological issues on campus that need addressing. As VP, Dooley will continue to work with STAC to address these issues for the 8th Assembly. Also, look for a PSU mobile application that’s actually useful to turn up sometime in the near future. “Currently, Penn State offers m.psu.edu, so we plan to advance this site by working with the Student Technology Advisory Committee,” commented Mullen.  “Another option is to work with a third party, similarly to what the UPUA did with the off-campus housing database, to create a comprehensive mobile application. We can ensure that it will be completed in a reasonable amount of time by working directly with either STAC, or the third party, from the outset of the project.”

• A student election for a student member on the BOT: Currently, there is a student representative on the BOT that is appointed by the governor. However, the governor does not always have to appoint a student representative because it’s an appointed position. “It is concerning that the governor could chose to not have a voting student,” noted Mullen. “However, the board has expressed their pleasure with the current student participation, and representation on the board and agrees that the selection process of different constituencies should be looked into.”

• Buses to away football games: If all goes well, this is something that will happen as soon as next season. Even better? UPUA would cover most (if not all) of the travel costs. “Depending on the prices, the UPUA would either subsidize the cost of the buses or pay the whole cost,” said Mullen. The one downside was that actual game tickets had yet to be discussed, which could be a problem for those looking for student prices on a tight budget. However, Mullen did say that it was something that would be discussed at the next Association of Big Ten Schools Conference.

• A sexual assault awareness campaign: Unfortunately, sexual assault has been a problem at Penn State for quite some time. However, Mullen and Dooley plan to attack this by continuing UPUA’s previous efforts with Sexual Assault Awareness Week. “We definitely plan to continue the Sexual Assault Awareness Week,” said Mullen. “We plan to work with organizations that share the common mission of raising awareness about this issue to promote this campaign, expand Sexual Assault Awareness Week, and create new events to combat this issue.”

• A student proposal competition: In an effort to get more students involved in UPUA, Mullen and Dooley want to set up a program where students not involved in UPUA can submit ideas. All the submissions will be voted on by a group of students, faculty, and staff and the winning idea will win $5,000 to complete the idea (with the assistance of UPUA, of course). As with any idea that UPUA has to reach out to students, poor turnout is often a problem. However, Mullen plans to ensure a good showing by “making sure that we notify as many people as possible and that students are allotted enough time to submit their initiatives.” She also wants to promote it through Onward State and the Daily Collegian (but mostly OS right?) in addition to setting up a booth in the HUB to raise awareness about the competition.

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