Student government officers are still in the process of drafting the rules for a special election that needs to be held this spring in order for the University Park Undergraduate Association to be able to retain its seats in the University Faculty Senate.

"They don't want to release it until it's perfect," said Mallory Gold, UPUA director of media relations, said of the election code.

The group's constitution calls for elections to be held each fall, but it called for a special election when it learned UPUA members would be unable to retain seats in senate next year if it held elections in the fall.

UPUA must show the Senate its election code before Senate will agree to give each college's faculty senate spot to a UPUA representative.

Gold said that the working election code has been sent to the Senate so it could make the proper recommendations.

UPUA President Jay Chamberlin said Senate's main requirement is that student government elections be competitive. Although UPUA originally planned to hold elections in the fall semester, Chamberlin said the retention of senate seats was important to the survival of the student government.

"Given the circumstances, with Faculty Senate refusing to work with us on fall elections, it was the right move," Chamberlin said. "Having faculty senators is essential to UPUA."

Since the elections in the spring are deemed special elections, they do not violate the UPUA constitution. The UPUA constitution can be amended after it passes its one-year mark next fall.

UPUA will have to schedule its elections between elections for other student groups, including the Association of Residence Hall Students (ARHS) and University Park Allocations Committee (UPAC).

The election code will determine the exact dates of the election.

Earlier this semester, Chamberlin decided to forego graduation this spring to stay for the remainder of his term as president, which at that time would have extended into the fall 2007 semester.

Now, Chamberlin said the period where he could declare his intent to graduate had already passed but was noncommittal about whether or not he would play a part in the transition.

"I have yet to decide what I'm going to do," Chamberlin said.