The Penn State Board of Trustees will have its first meeting of the 2006-2007 school year Friday with no representation from the Undergraduate Student Government.

Undergraduate Student Government (USG) President Nick Stathes has not received an invitation to be a student representative at the trustees' Sept. 15 meeting, one of the first tangible effects of the recent shift in student government.

The standard procedure, dating back to before Penn State President Graham Spanier's time in office, was to invite the USG president, the Graduate Student Association president and the Council of Commonwealth Student Governments president to serve as student representatives at the trustees meetings.

Since university administration recognized the University Park Undergraduate Association (UPUA) as the official representative body for undergraduate students in April, the UPUA president would be the likely successor to the spot previously occupied by Stathes. However, UPUA elections will not take place until Oct. 11, which leaves an empty chair for student representation.

Stathes said he was told by Board of Trustees office director Paula Ammerman that the trustees meeting in July would be his last.

Ammerman said the decision was passed down by Spanier, who selects the three faculty and three student representatives to attend each meeting.

"As soon as the new UPUA president is elected, he or she will receive an invitation to attend the next meeting," said Ammerman, who stressed that the two other student representatives and the presence of student trustee Galen Foulke would provide adequate representation on behalf of students.

Though Foulke did confirm he would be at the meeting, he did not respond to further interview requests.

Foulke, the former USG president who spearheaded the creation of UPUA and its subsequent election, is already a trustee, having been appointed in 2005 by Gov. Ed Rendell.

However, for the current USG president, indications are that he will be watching the trustees meeting with the general public.

"It's more of a symbolic thing, but it's disappointing ... each time I was very excited to be invited," Stathes said. "If I were on the Board of Trustees I would want to hear about [student body issues] from students in the university."

The other student representatives also voiced concern.

"My personal opinion is that until UPUA elections are held, USG and Nick Stathes should be recognized as the undergraduate student government and should be invited to the Board of Trustees meeting," Raghavan Balaji, Graduate Student Association President, said.

Both he and Council of Student Governments President Jerry Jay Livingston said they have received invitations to attend the event.

"It strikes me as odd that they're letting that seat go vacant," Livingston said.

Penn State spokesman Bill Mahon did not share the views of the two invited student representatives.

"USG no longer has an official status at the university as a result of the vote taken by the student body last year," he wrote in an e-mail message. "The students have spoken, but Nick doesn't seem to want to listen."

Mahon also said that, from previous experience, he does not believe the absence of a student representative will have a significant impact at the Board of Trustees meeting.

At the July meeting in Philadelphia, however, Stathes took advantage of the student representatives' sole opportunity to speak, offering a dissenting view to Vice President for Student Affairs Vicky Triponey's proposed changes to the student activity fee.

"I have a job to do and that is to advocate for the students," Stathes said. "In Philadelphia I stood up for what I thought the students wanted."