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.
The University Park Undergraduate Association has now had time to react to last night's censure of President Christian Ragland. The Assembly voted 24-3-12 to reprimand the President for appointing Dustin Dove to the position of Chief of Staff without approval or confirmation by the Assembly, and after the Board of Arbitration ruled that Dove was ineligible to serve in UPUA.
President of the Council of Commonwealth Student Governments Mohamed Raouda appeared during the Open Student Forum portion of the meeting and encouraged UPUA members to attend this weekend's CCSG meeting. Raouda said that the Assembly has "so far shown amazing support to the Commonwealth."
The University Park Undergraduate Association is currently searching for a Parliamentarian to serve for the 2010-11 academic year. The primary role of the position would be to be an authority on parliamentary procedure and advising Assembly members thereof.
Michael Pipe, the Democratic nominee for the 5th Congressional District, announced today that he will be holding a series of 12 town hall meetings across the region, with a stop in State College at the Schlow Memorial Library on August 10 from 7:00 pm to 8:00 pm. The full list of meetings and more information is viewable on Pipe's campaign website.
Representative Scott Conklin (D-Centre County) received 316,192 votes in yesterday's Democratic race for lieutenant governor-- his closest opponent, Jonathan Saidel, received 311,538. These are equivalent to, respectively, 35.4% and 34.9% of the total votes.
The race is still too close to call for two reasons. According to the official website, as of 10:10 am this morning, 75 districts had not yet reported voting totals. Moreover, the Centre Daily Times reported this morning that if the final margin is less than one half of one percent of the total number of votes cast, a recount would be automatically triggered in all 67 counties.