While the University Park Undergraduate Association (UPUA) is seeking students to fill academic college seats, the procedure for the appointments is drawing criticism from some.
After the Oct. 11 election, 22 of UPUA's 28 spots remained unfilled as many candidates failed to get the required 250 minimum votes to be certified to the position.
Currently, UPUA has no uniform procedure for filling these seats and has left the appointment of representatives solely to the discretion of the specific colleges.
"The applications weren't open and no one knew who applied. The students couldn't see who they were," Nick Stathes, Undergraduate Student Government (USG) president, said. "That's the way they do things in a dictatorship."
Jay Chamberlin, UPUA president, said UPUA's process is designed to give the colleges freedom in choosing representatives.
"I think that the appointment process is based on the specific needs of each college. I guess that it might be good if they had a uniform process, but I don't think having variation changes the fairness," he said. "A college might be interested in different things. Some colleges might want a student who already serves on the council."
Attempting to apply as a College of Earth and Mineral Sciences representative, former UPUA vice presidential candidate Christopher Brink was told the position had already been filled by a council member.
Brink said he wasn't aware of any application or reviewing process to fill the position.
"This is a farce of the democratic system," he said. "They can't even follow the backbone upon which fosters their ability to govern such a university. Personal vendettas can seep through without any reluctance."
Max Pell, Eberly College of Science representative, won the popular vote but was unable to gain the 250 votes necessary to be certified. He said he places the non-uniform process on student apathy.
"No one really ran for my position," he said. "I'm not telling these colleges how to do their appointments. Ideally, this process would have worked properly in the first place."
Mitch Witmer-Belding, UPUA vice president, said appointment of the popular vote winner is a common way to appoint representatives.
"They saw that person was really interested in doing it," he said. "In positions where nobody ran, it's hard to thwart interest in applying, but they might have interest within their own academic assembly."
Stathes said prospective USG members must submit applications, be interviewed and numerically rated by the Internal Affairs committee and voted on by the senate.
Tom Shakely, UPUA off-campus representative, said he doesn't completely disagree with the UPUA process but believes USG's process of application review is more "student centered."
"It's nice the way people from many parts of the university can go in and say, 'I really want to be a part of this. Here are my qualifications. What do you think?' " he said.
In USG's process, résumés of applicants are made public and distributed at the meetings.
While discussing the nomination for UPUA treasurer, Chamberlin said he wanted to "hold off commenting" on the identity of his nomination until the person has been approved. He would not reveal the identities of any of the applicants.
Shakely and Pell both said they had no knowledge of Chamberlin's prospective treasurer.
"First, we have a president and vice president that were not democratically elected. Then we have six out of 28 individuals elected by the students," Stathes said. "Now we have no specific process to elect the remaining 22 individuals. That is wrong."
