The University Park Undergraduate Association (UPUA) continued working toward having spring elections by passing an election code at its meeting last night.

After the last UPUA elections, which were marked by controversy over how to interpret financial rules, UPUA wanted to have a code in place that would do a better job of governing the elections.

Ralph Crivello, the college of engineering representative, believed that they group succeeded.

"It's written a lot better, so there's less ambiguity," he said.

The code also contains a provision for an elections appeals board, consisting of five undergraduate students not otherwise affiliated with the elections, so that if a candidate is found in violation of any rule by the elections commission he or she has a clear way to appeal the decision.

This became an issue during UPUA elections last fall, when the commission determined that presidential candidate Jay Bundy exceeded his spending limit and was disqualified. Bundy wanted to appeal the verdict, but since UPUA has no judicial branch and the administration said it could not step in, he had no real recourse.

The code passed with relatively little debate, with the body arguing only over the point of whether to pay elections commissioners.

The association ultimately decided to postpone the debate until sometime next week, when President Jay Chamberlin said the organization would have a better sense of how much money was at the group's disposal.

UPUA currently has about $1,400 in its account.

Crivello said paying commissioners would make them more willing to dedicate more time to their jobs.

"They've always been paid," he said, referring to past Undergraduate Student Government (USG) elections. "We need commissioners to be really gung-ho about this."

Tom Shakely, an off-campus representative, was also in support of paying commissioners.

"This is a soundly positive investment, and it's going to pay off exponentially," he said.

Other members of USG were against paying commissioners.

John Richter, internal development chairman, said that the organization should consider the other expenses that they could have in running elections as well. These expenses could include renting rooms, setting up debates and meet-the-candidate sessions and other publicity related expenditures.

"I don't think we should assume that if we don't pay these people, then they're going to be bad," he said.

Chamberlin said USG's recent merger proposal, which could provide UPUA with $25,000 in assets, would not be taken into account in plans to fund the elections until UPUA had taken more time to consider the proposal.

UPUA's internal development committee will meet on Wednesday to discuss the merger proposal further.