Working to reverse the Association of Big Ten Students' decision not to recognize UPUA as an official student government, UPUA has nearly finished a complete overhaul of its constitution to make it comparable to other Big Ten student governments.

The Association of Big Ten Students' (ABTS) has failed to recognize UPUA twice in the past, even after the Undergraduate Student Government (USG) disbanded earlier this semester.

ABTS is an organization composed of representatives from Big Ten student governments. Mohammad Dar, ABTS executive director, said the organization has chosen not to recognize UPUA because "the rights that UPUA had compared to other student governments around the Big Ten were lacking."

"UPUA doesn't have a lot of things other student governments consider a minimum," he said.

When UPUA's constitutional review committee was preparing its recommendations, Ralph Crivello, who served as chairman of the committee, said he had been in discussions with ABTS officials to determine what UPUA needed in its constitution to be recognized by ABTS.

UPUA's proposed new constitution would not give it any more power with regard to university decision-making, but it would clearly state what Crivello called an "expectation" that the administration would consult UPUA in decision-making. The proposed constitution would also not give UPUA any sort of official budget; it will still have to appear before the Fee Allocation Board to request funds every year.

The revised constitution is also in response to merger requirements outline by USG. ABTS' complaints about UPUA echo USG's requests heavily.

UPUA President Jay Chamberlin recognized that UPUA does not currently have the same level of power as other student governments, many of which have large budgets in addition to influence over administrative decisions.

"At Penn State, it's not a traditional student government in the sense that it doesn't do what other student governments do," he said. "This group's role is to represent the students' interest to the administration."

Former USG President Nick Stathes was harsher in his analysis of UPUA's role.

"Most other schools have a government," he said. "We don't have one. When administrators are going to make decisions, they don't even contact students."

Dar said many of the things in the proposed draft of the UPUA constitution were meant to make it more like other Big Ten student governments.

"We used the same provisions for UPUA that we had in other student governments around the Big Ten," he said.

Administrative influence

Much like students involved in UPUA this year, students at the University of Illinois had to go through the process of creating a new student government when students there voted to replace the Illinois Student Government with the Illinois Student Senate (ISS) in 2004. Ariel Avila, ISS vice president, said the similarities between UPUA and ISS ended there, asserting that UPUA could not function well with the degree of administrative control it is under.

"I think it's very important that students have a say in what's happening at the university," he said. "I think it's very important to the principle of shared governance."

While ISS is notable as a point of comparison, the Associated Students of Michigan State University (ASMSU) is often cited by student leaders as the benchmark of student governments, mostly because of its high degree of power in university decision-making.

"Almost every decision, we have a one-third vote," Juan Carlos Elicade, ASMSU representative, said. "We have the same amount of power as the administration and the board of trustees."

Elicade identified a lack of power as the biggest problem with the UPUA.

"Your student government has a lack of representative power," he said. "I hope your students realize they're missing a lot."

Peter McElligott, University of Iowa Student Government (UISG) president, agreed that UPUA had little power with regard to the administration compared to other student governments.

"For a lot of other student governments I know, it's a mix of power. I think we're on the lucky side," McElligott said. "I know the administration at Penn State gives considerably less credence to what student government has to say."

Chamberlin, however, said there are "several" ways UPUA interacts with the administration. First and foremost, he cited the fact that the UPUA president is also a student representative on the Board of Trustees. He also said UPUA was represented on a number of groups that provide input into university decision-making. Specifically, he mentioned last Thursday, when he met with representatives from the administration and the athletic department to discuss the student football season tickets situation.

"That general workgroup environment is used for a number of issues," he said. "UPUA normally is represented on those."

Dar said the most important thing for UPUA to do is to be completely autonomous by being able to amend its constitution without getting approval from an outside body.

Dar added that the proposed constitution would help students feel like they have a unified voice, which would allow UPUA to discuss policy with the administration on behalf of its students.

A lack of monetary power

Elicade said that having an independent budget and holding sway with the administration went hand in hand by making student government less accountable to the administration.

"Your student representation is not separate from the administration," he said. "By not having a budget, they are limited in what they can do."

Elicade suggested that UPUA could be given a budget by giving it control of at least some of the revenue from the student activity fee.

"That money is a huge amount," he said. "It's probably the biggest tax of any Big Ten schools."

Penn State students pay a $58 student activity fee, which will be raised to $68 if a proposed increase is passed by the Board of Trustees at its July meeting.

The Fee Allocation Board (FAB) is currently in charge of allocating money collected from the fee.

UPUA was without a real budget for most of this year, but was recently given $6,000 from the administration to fund it for the remainder of this year. UPUA also appeared before FAB to request $32,150 in funding for next year.

FAB is composed of seven voting student members, one of which must be a graduate student, along with three voting faculty representatives.

Chamberlin said UPUA has a "great deal of control" in how the student activity fee is spent. Specifically, he described helping administrators interview candidates for the University Park Allocations Committee (UPAC).

Stathes disagreed, saying that "over the course of time, it's become this large, large fee that students have had less control over."

Michigan State students pay a $16.75 tax directly to ASMSU, which allows ASMSU a $1.3 million dollar budget.

Much of this budget is allocated to other groups through the funding board of the ASMSU; student groups may apply for up to $3,000 per semester. ASMSU also has a programming board, which Elicade said has about $100,000 to work with.

Elicade's theory that decision-making power and a sizable budget go hand in hand holds true with Iowa's UISG, which operates on a budget of $850,000.

It also allocates much of that money to different student groups. McElligott said a large chunk of the budget is also spent on entertainment for students, with a combined estimate of $220,000 going to concerts and lectures.

The Work of Other Big Ten Student Governments

Other student governments in the Big Ten take an active role in the student community as well, especially in planning special programs for students.

Penn State students often are faced with the crisis of finding housing for the next school year almost a year in advance.

At the University of Michigan, the Michigan Student Association (MSA) worked with the city of Ann Arbor to have a grace period early in the fall semester during which landlords would not be able to post rentals on the open market. This plan is intended to alleviate some of the pressure on students to arrange to have housing arrangements almost a year in advance.

The MSA was not the only student government to work with its home city. Ohio State's Undergraduate Student Government worked with the city of Columbus earlier this year for increased lighting in dangerous areas off campus, securing a $1 million grant from the city for the project.

While Penn State students get Napster for free, it is still paid for out of student fees. The Indiana University Student Association created a free music-sharing network for all students without spending any portion of its university funding or student activity fee.

Elicade said ASMSU offers a free yearbook, "which is basically the biggest yearbook in the country."

One of the major criticisms of UPUA is that not enough people voted in its election in the fall, as just about 7 percent of University Park undergraduate students voted.

This is not a problem at many other schools, but especially the University of Michigan, which saw about 32 percent of undergraduate students vote in its last election, when more than 8,000 out of 25,000 students cast ballots.

Chamberlin said the projects undertaken by UPUA so far this year have mostly been of an administrative and organizational nature, so they are not as visible as many of the projects that other student governments have done.

"Unfortunately, that's what the majority of this first year has been," he said. "It's going to help us in the long run."

Dar said the tasks UPUA has completed so far are good evidence that it can be an effective group, though there's still "a lot of work to be done."

"I have faith that UPUA is moving in the right direction," he said.