Vice President for Student Affairs Damon Sims gave a special presentation at Wednesday's University Park Undergraduate Association meeting. Sims spoke for 45 minutes, chiefly about the direction and role of UPUA and student government in the upcoming era of the university. Drawing on his own experiences with student government and student leadership, he presented some interesting ideas.
Last night, the University Park Undergraduate Association passed two resolutions and two policies. Most notably, after the major victory last Tuesday of getting a non-voting student representative on the State College Borough Council, the Assembly voted on legislation determining how that representative would be chosen.
The Executive Board of the University Park Undergraduate Association continues to work on defining the role and official procedures regarding the Chief of Staff. You'll recall the tense situation two weeks ago when President Christian Ragland appointed Dustin Dove to the position without approval of the Assembly.
UPUA has not met as a whole since that episode, and the Executive Board met last Saturday to discuss this and other issues.
At their meeting last night, the University Park Allocation Committee passed a new policy that allows certain programming organizations to be eligible to receive up to $250,000 per year.
A chorus of ayes. Just like that, and the State College Borough Council unanimously approved a resolution creating a student seat on the Council. A formal connection between town and gown has now been established.
Tonight, at 7:30 p.m., the State College Borough Council will hold a meeting to vote on introducing a non-voting student representative seat on the Council.
"This seat will allow students to see visibly that they are stakeholders in a community that is occupied by mostly students," says Christian Ragland, President of the University Park Undergraduate Association.