UPUA Votes To Fund Celebrate State Initiative, Spends Hour Confirming Associate Justice
The 14th Assembly of the University Park Undergraduate Association convened for its sixth meeting of the semester Wednesday night in the HUB. Members passed legislation to fund the “Celebrate State” initiative, in addition to electing new PASS and Movin’ On Liaisons.
Student Engagement and Outreach Librarian Hailey Fargo gave a special presentation to kick off the meeting, noting that there will be several events in honor of LGBTQ+ history month taking place over the next couple of weeks.
These events include a pop-up queer history display from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Main Assembly Room of Paterno Library on Thursday, October 3. There will also be Wikipedia Edit-A-Thon from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Tuesday, October 5.
Following brief reports by President McKinney and Vice President Griggs, the assembly turned its focus to Bill #11-14, which was stricken from the agenda last week. The bill aims to provide $8500 in funding for the “Celebrate State” event which is slated to take place Friday, October 18 in the HUB.
“Celebrate State is about achieving, discovering, exploring what you can do here at the university as well as beyond your time here at University Park,” at-large representative Adeline Mishler said. “It’s really going to energize and empower the student body which I think is something that UPUA needs to take more of a part in doing.”
Following several minutes of heated discussion, the bill passed 35-1-2.
As far as new business goes, the assembly transitioned into elections for both PASS and Movin’ On Liaisons. Daniel Risser, a member of the freshman council and a student majoring in Political Science and Public Relations, was confirmed as the PASS Liaison. Risser has plenty of experience in advocacy and government relations, which will be very useful as he tackles his new role within UPUA.
Meanwhile, College of IST Representative Izzy Webster was elected as the Movin’ On Liaison. Webster is also the 2019 Homecoming Executive director.
“I think the UPUA partnership with Movin’ On is fantastic,” Webster said in a brief speech. “It shows both the UPUA’s commitment to collaboration and support of other programming organizations and I think opens up a lot of room for partnership across campus.”
In the next order of business, the assembly passed yet another piece of legislation, this time Bill #12-14. As a result, UPUA will now fund a total of 150, $15 coupons for students planning to receive Lyft rides to and from the University Park Airport for fall break.
To close out the meeting, senior Daniel Zahn was confirmed as the Judicial Board Associate Justice. However, that wasn’t until after about an hour of heated debate and discussion among the members of the assembly, regarding Zahn’s qualifications and prior involvement with the judicial board.
The meeting was adjourned at approximately 10:42 p.m.
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