It took a few weeks to reach the end of the UPUA Elections Code saga, but it finally came on Wednesday night as Policy 06-09 passed through the General Assembly by a vote of 31-2.

This all started when the code came to the floor with a number of issues and concerns coming to light. Amendment after amendment were offered before the legislation was eventually put out of its misery and recommitted to the Internal Development committee to get some more work before being voted on by the assembly.

During the last meeting before Thanksgiving break, ID Chair Ryan Belz announced that the code would be coming back to the floor shortly with no changes made, explaining that nobody outside of his own committee members showed up to his meeting with recommendations for changes. That sort of defeats the purpose of a committee, which exists so that it doesn’t take the work of the entire assembly collectively to write floor-worthy legislation.

“A committee is created so that every member of an organization does not have to show up and offer input on every issue or piece of legislation,” At-Large Representative Melissa McCleery (also an Onward State writer) said. “It’s really irresponsible and a misuse of your power and disrespectful to this assembly to disregard the opinions of this assembly and send it back to the floor.”

At-Large Representative John Lombardo, along with Belz, rose against a motion from McCleery to recommit the policy for a second time. They said that the code was agreed upon by the committee, so it should not be asked to rework it. After the motion to recommit the policy failed 14-19 with a number of representatives agreeing to hash out all the issues on the floor and get it over with, the Elections Code was instead rushed through with no mention of the issues raised a few weeks back.

In other news, the assembly passed Policy 07-09 — Livestreaming & Recording UPUA Meetings by a vote of 31-3. There was some debate about the legality of videotaping meetings and streaming them online, but no real issues were raised and more details on the stream will come shortly.

“I know dozens of people that follow our Twitter live feed during meetings,” Lombardo said, putting to bed any concerns that the stream wouldn’t have interest.

Vice President Emily McDonald gave an update on the impending death of WebMail. McDonald said that during a recent meeting with STAC, she was told that select students would use a Microsoft e-mail system as a trial during the spring semester. Options like GMail will likely receive trials at some point too, she said.

The assembly swore in Patrick King, a new liaison to ARHS, as well.