The University Park Undergraduate Association (UPUA) held their final general assembly meeting of the semester last night, which also just might have been their longest. The meeting featured a packed agenda, with four pieces of legislation, three presentations, and a slew of executive board confirmations.
The Daily Collegian's Board of Opinion published an editorial yesterday, opining that the UPUA would be better served to allocate money to student organizations as opposed to some of the initiatives outlined in their current proposed budget, which will be up for vote amongst the general assembly tonight, because the money would reach more students that way. The issue with this assertion is that there is already an organization, the University Park Allocation Committee (UPAC), which exists specifically for this purpose.
The UPUA Internal Development Committee met last night to discuss and vote on the budget, which totals $137,350, for the coming academic year. After a short discussion and debate in which certain budget items were either clarified or axed, the committee was able to pass the budget to be presented to the general assembly at tonight's meeting.
The Morrill Land Grant Act of 1862 is one of my favorite pieces of legislation.
A Congress atrophied by the Civil War sent a bill to President Lincoln that, when signed in to law, changed the face of tertiary education in America. In a research report I did in seventh grade about Penn State, discussion of the Morrill Act took up more pages than it probably should have. It made a higher education both affordable and valuable to the common man. This was an Act designed not to increase the number of scholars of law or divinity, but of botany, agriculture, and the "mechanical arts."
Penn State became one of the nation's first land grant institutions.
Last night, the University Park Allocation Committee voted to amend their policy handbook regarding travel costs and Standing Allocation status for campus organizations.
Multiple sources have informed Onward State that Penn State President Graham Spanier announced on Monday a 1% raise for all faculty members. It is believed, but not yet confirmed, that the raise was a university-wide one, extending from professors "down to janitors and grounds crew."