The 15th Assembly of the University Park Undergraduate Association met virtually Wednesday for its 12th fall semester meeting.

The meeting began with a special presentation from Hailley Fargo, a student engagement and outreach librarian at Penn State.

Fargo spoke about how the libraries have been operating recently and responding to the coronavirus. She said a priority of the library’s right now is still to work as hard as possible to engage and help students, even if it needs to be virtual.

UPUA President Zach McKay spoke in his report about his strong condemnation of the actions of the former fraternity house that recently made headlines for the troubling behaviors and allegations made against them.

“Let me be clear: This is absolutely no way to treat any human being, let alone a fellow student and peer,” McKay said. “That the residents perpetuating this danger to the State College community would consider themselves contributors to community service, or genuine philanthropy, is morally wrong.”

Following a few liaison reports, the assembly moved into new business for the evening.

New Business

The first piece of legislation for the evening was Bill 10-15.

Bill 10-15 establishes Lyft subsidies up to $15 for students needing assistance as they travel to the University Park Airport for fall and winter break.

Students will have the opportunity to use the subsidies when they travel home for Thanksgiving and when they return to campus in January. UPUA will allocate $3,750 of its budget to fund 125 subsidies for the fall break and fund 125 subsidies for the winter break.

Students should use promo code UPUAFALL2020 if they want to receive the discount. Codes for the fall break will be available November 18 to November 25, and codes for winter break will be available January 14 to January 21.

Bill 10-15 passed unanimously.

The next piece of legislation was Resolution 40-15. This resolution supports the possibility of legal action being taken against the residents of 329 E. Prospect Avenue, the former fraternity house that university and local officials are currently discouraging students from visiting.

Specifically, the legal action UPUA is calling on officials to enact would result in a lawsuit where the property gets classified as a nuisance property, giving the borough the right to remove residents.

Resolution 40-15 passed unanimously.

The final piece of legislation for the evening was Resolution 41-15. This resolution formally acknowledges Veterans Day and commits on behalf of UPUA to continue to support the Penn State Student Veterans Organization.

UPUA plans in the future to share more resources and information to help the student veteran population at Penn State. According to the legislation from the meeting, more than 5,600 Penn State students have direct military ties in some form.

Resolution 41-45 passed unanimously.

Following a few executive reports and comments for the good of the order, the meeting adjourned at 9:09 p.m.