The 15th Assembly of the University Park Undergraduate Association met virtually Wednesday for its tenth fall semester meeting.

During this week’s special presentation, the assembly heard from Penn State Vice President of Student Affairs Damon Sims.

During his presentation, Sims expressed his surprise and happiness that the university has made it this far into the semester without needing to shut down due to the coronavirus.

Sims asked for UPUA’s support in helping students navigate whatever feelings or emotions they may feel after next week’s presidental election.

Following a question from Speaker of the Assembly Steven Zhang, Sims spoke candidly about his disappointment following this past weekend’s large gatherings of students downtown.

Sims said that although he believes the majority of students are behaving appropriately and doing the right thing, the partying that happened in overwhelmingly large numbers raised concerns from administrators about being a super-spreader event.

Sims shared that he and other university officials are working with local police= and landlords to help mitigate the spread.

“Last night we had a call with local landlords because candidly, I think we felt that in the instances over the weekend with those three events the property owners and managers had not done everything they could to minimize the risk,” Sims said. “Those are private properties. We cannot control those.”

Following reports from UPUA President Zach McKay and Vice-President Lexy Pathickal, the assembly moved into new business for the evening.

New Business

The first and only piece of legislation for the evening was Bill 06-15.

This bill, on behalf of UPUA, provides funding for transportation to the Bryce Jordan Center on Election Day. Typically, students vote in-person at the HUB. However, due to recent changes and coronavirus precautions, most will vote at the BJC this year.

Bill 06-15 will allot $1,218 of UPUA’s budget to funding for a Blue Loop bus running from various locations to the BJC on Tuesday, November 3. The bus will run from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Election Day, stopping at the Thomas Building and Rec Hall.

Bill 06-15 passed unanimously, and the meeting promptly adjourned at 7:55 p.m.