The Cabinet of Student Leaders is attempting to aid in the transition of student representation from Undergraduate Student Government (USG) to the proposed University Park Undergraduate Association (UPUA).
Although the university has yet to declare which form of student representation it will acknowledge, the Cabinet has decided to support UPUA and is prepared to take control of the initial elections after its official recognition.
The Cabinet began two years ago as Vice President for Student Affairs Vicky Triponey's student advisory group. She selects about 20 representatives from student groups to participate annually.
On March 22, 19 members presented Triponey with a letter stating support for UPUA and their desire to oversee the organization's initial elections. They also wrote that once established, UPUA and other democratically elected students groups, such as the Graduate Student Association (GSA) and the Council of Commonwealth Student Governments (CCSG), should be responsible for deciding the composition of the Cabinet.
The letter suggests that having "the Cabinet's composition ultimately rest in the hands of those democratically elected bodies" -- UPUA, GSA and CCSG -- would "better communicate student concern."
Allies representative Ed Rowe said the Cabinet needs to be independent of administration to organize the UPUA transition.
The letter also proposes allowing students to help create Cabinet meeting agendas. The document seemed to cause friction between the Cabinet and Triponey, some representatives said.
Brian Borawski, GSA representative, said the tone of the meeting was the students against the administrators.
"[Triponey's] hand-picked leaders did something she didn't want," he said. "It was very upsetting [for Triponey]."
Borawski, the only graduate representative on the Cabinet, was asked by the administration to stay out of UPUA decisions because of his graduate status.
"I didn't sign the letter to personally be the death nail of the USG," he said. "But I did feel that there was going to be a transition if I like it or not, and students should be in charge of it."
Rowe said the Cabinet's initial concern was adjusting the special committee in charge of amending the UPUA constitution.
The UPUA constitution states that four members would make up the committee: a university administrator, preferably the vice president for student affairs, a university faculty member, preferably the chairman of the Faculty Senate Committee on Undergraduate Education, and two undergraduate students not affiliated with UPUA.
In their letter, the members said they want the two students on the amendment committee to be chosen from the Cabinet.
Rowe said the Cabinet would be the ideal body to perform such a task, except for the fact that members are selected by the administration. That concern led to concept of a democratic Cabinet, he said.
"In order to legitimize ourselves, we had to do something to ensure that the Cabinet itself was more representative and democratic," Rowe said.
Association of Residence Hall Students representative Abbey Rhode said most of the issues originally presented have been deterred or compromised since the meeting.
She said Triponey's concern was the ability to appoint the Cabinet.
"That's not changing," she said. "The reason we thought that was a good idea and necessary was because the UPUA thing needed a democratically elected body, but in talking to [Triponey], that solution may not be the best solution."
Rowe said he was disappointed by the reaction from both Triponey -- who he said replied that she did not "respond well to demands" -- and the Cabinet members.
"The letter had broad support," Rowe said. "Everyone seemed to believe in each of those points. I was surprised later to see that more of my colleagues weren't defending every point of the statement."
Triponey did not respond to repeated requests for comment from The Daily Collegian.
"It was clear that she was not willing to relinquish control over this group," Rowe said. "Students rarely have an outlet for unified voice, and they have no true power in their own university. I think her reaction was indicative of a systematic approach at Penn State, which denies student autonomy over their own university."
Rowe said the Cabinet's priority is UPUA, which may be a reason some compromised on the democratic issues.
Off-Campus Student Union President Ryan Bennington, the only member who did not sign the letter, said that although he supported the issues presented in the document, the format and tone of the suggestions were inappropriate.
Rhode said some of the letter's original intentions have been adapted, but the group still feels that a separate democratic student group should be responsible for the UPUA transition.
"The idea was that we supported UPUA, but we had trouble seeing a mechanism of it actually transitioning to become an organization," she said. "We thought that we were probably an ideal group on campus to not directly transition the group but to start appointing people to be the actual group to do that."
USG President Galen Foulke was not at the meeting because of his UPUA affiliation.
However, he said, "pending recognition by Dr. Spanier, I'm going to seek the student membership of the Cabinet as the authority to choose the transition committee."
Some Cabinet members are still debating the issues.
"Even if Dr. Triponey doesn't let this happen through her organization, some of the members are looking to start it up outside of her authority," Borawski said. "Either way, something is going to happen."
Rowe said he would follow the lead of other Cabinet members if they chose to concentrate their efforts on a separate democratic group to oversee the UPUA elections instead of becoming democratic themselves, but he still feels this issue is an ongoing battle.
"I think this statement was a great first step. It's unfortunate that the university chose to blow it off," he said. "There are plenty of other students willing to keep fighting for the cause. I'm not going to give up on democracy because a couple administrators tell me this is not a democracy."
