The administration's recent acknowledgement of the University Park Undergraduate Association (UPUA) as the official voice of the student body has left some questioning their alliances to the Undergraduate Student Government (USG) and wondering whom to support in the fall.

To become fully operational by Oct. 15, UPUA organizers hope to raise awareness about the new group throughout the rest of the semester and hold elections for its 36 available positions early next fall.

"I feel that UPUA has a much better setup," Mitchell Belding (freshman-business) said. "I'm really happy that it went through."

Although some students have made it clear that they support the UPUA, others are still unsure about which organization to support.

"I'm just for whoever is going to represent me better," Megan Bibey (sophomore-psychology) said.

Because USG has more students actually involved in the organization, it might be the better choice for representation, Bibey said.

"I kind of think USG might have been a better process," she said. "There was just more representation, which is better."

She added that the university's trust in USG for more than 40 years gives the organization credibility.

"Forty-five years has got to mean something," she said.

Problems within USG have been increasing during the past few years, prompting the organization to restructure.

"At this point, any change is good because USG obviously isn't doing it's job," Carly Hahn (freshman-health policy and administration) said.

Hahn said problems in the organization have stemmed from conflicts within the group and the administration.

"If UPUA is going to have less conflict with administration because it is smaller, then it's a good thing," she said. "They just need to inform students more about what they are doing."

Bibey said she hopes UPUA will be able to increase student rights and involvement.

"Since there was a change, I hope it's for the better," she said. "I do think that if they want to help things, they should definitely try to find ways to reach the students more and get them involved."

Rachel Plowman (junior-food science) said she couldn't think of anything USG had done for her in the past, and she is looking forward to the implementation of UPUA.

"I'm interested to see what happens," she said. "I'm optimistic and hope to see more of a connection [between the student representation and the student body], but I don't know what to expect."

Belding said the establishment and recognition of UPUA should cut out a lot of the internal fighting between the branches of student government and provide students with proper representation.

"Students don't need governing, they need representation," he said. "UPUA will be the voice for the administration [to hear]."

Kevin Mangold (freshman-computer science) said he didn't know the purpose of USG and hadn't heard of anything it did for students.

"I don't know anything about the change," he said. "I'm guessing [UPUA] will kind of be the same."

Richard Fabio said he didn't know what USG's or UPUA's intentions were and wasn't anticipating anything beneficial from the change.

Past USG elections, he said, were popularity contests, and he hopes UPUA will change the way student elections are conducted to create more equality.

Belding also expressed concern with the recent USG elections and said the candidates' platforms were not entirely valid.

"If you are going to run a good campaign, you need to have truth behind it," he said.

At this point, the main issue facing both groups is the number of students who are unaware of the change of student representation.

"If UPUA got recognized by the university, it has to have some importance," Kaitlyn Konkle (freshman-division of undergraduate studies) said. "However, students should know what it is before it is implemented."