With the number of factors working against the Undergraduate Student Government (USG), it isn't surprising that its members' gripes with the University Park Undergraduate Association (UPUA) aren't just procedural issues.

Most USG members don't have a problem with UPUA's structure. In fact, Nick Stathes, USG President, agrees that UPUA's single assembly would probably work better than USG's three-branch structure.

For most USG members, the reason they won't just give in to UPUA is what they say is the administration's excessive influence on the organization.

USG members didn't like the presence of faculty and administrators in addition to students on the committee former USG president Galen Foulke formed to write the constitution.

But in the current form of UPUA's constitution, the actual organization will still consist entirely of students.

"All our power comes from the students," said Andrew Reeve, chairman of the UPUA transition group.

The only time the administration has any defined role is if UPUA members want to amend the constitution. According to the current constitution, any amendment must be approved by a committee consisting of a university administrator, a university faculty member and two undergraduate students who are not UPUA representatives or committee members.

Reeve said the transition group is still reviewing the entire constitution, including the amendment process. He said he expects the final version of the constitution to be approved by the committee within the next few weeks.

He added that only UPUA members can propose amendments, not administrators.

Stathes, however, said the problem isn't just about the administration's defined role in the constitution. He said UPUA also represents a reduction in students' power.

"UPUA accepts that students don't have power on this campus," he said. "If the students in UPUA had this power, I would turn around and support UPUA in a second."

The change from a "government" to an "advocacy" organization is something that UPUA's creators acknowledge -- and say is a good thing.

According to the report of the commission that proposed UPUA, "while advocacy and representation are, or should be, the main purposes of the current student government, the word 'government' in the organization name is misleading. When USG was formed in 1962, upperclassmen still had some control over lower-standing students, such as mandating chapel attendance or determining a dress code. In today's world, however, neither students nor the University have such powers."

Stathes said he wants the student government to have more defined powers, such as the ability to recognize student groups that the USG Supreme Court used to have. He said he would also like to see the student government have more control over office space in the HUB-Robeson Center and have control over an operational budget.

"I think that students and administrators should be working together hand in hand on many projects," he said. "The thing is though, it needs to be in writing and it needs to be defined."