The University Park Undergraduate Association concluded its first year as the official student voice this week, with some students saying it created a foundation and others saying it failed to represent the student body.

Former University Park Undergraduate Association (UPUA) President Jay Chamberlin said UPUA set a "foundation" for years to come by establishing its bylaws and revising its constitution, even though the amendments have yet to be passed by an external review board.

Chamberlin said UPUA would be able to build off any recommendations the review board offers, even though any amendments could not take effect until the next time UPUA holds elections.

John Richter, former internal development committee chairman, and Hillary Lewis, former governmental affairs chairwoman and current UPUA president, both listed the process of revising bylaws and the constitution among UPUA's chief accomplishments.

However, Lewis added that the constitution not passing was a negative, and other members agreed with her more emphatically.

Ralph Crivello, who chaired the constitutional review board, said the work done on the constitution was "kind of a waste of time and resources" because it was not passed in time.

UPUA attempted to revamp its constitution to explicitly establish things that are only implied in its current constitution, such as an executive board and limiting the power of the presidency.

Katelyn Holmes, who will reprise her role as a UPUA representative, said the revised constitution would have been the biggest accomplishment of UPUA, had it passed.

Nick Stathes, former Undergraduate Student Government (USG) president, said UPUA's first year was an "absolute failure," mostly because of the constitution not being approved.

"Our entire university should be embarrassed that we don't have an effective student government, or even student advocacy group," he said. "If it's possible, UPUA is more meaningless now than it was when it started."

Chamberlin, however, highlighted some of the tangible things UPUA has accomplished, including the service it organized, in conjunction with several other groups, in remembrance of the Virginia Tech victims, the freshman forum and the plant-a-tree initiative.

Crivello said the plant-a-tree initiative was something "worthwhile" UPUA accomplished. He said it showed "UPUA can work with administrators on things that are not that contentious" as well as including other clubs in its initiatives.

Tom Shakely, former off-campus representative, said while UPUA did do something this year, it "wasn't much different from what USG was." Shakely said the internal work done this year was just redoing what was done in the past.

Shakely also said the idea that UPUA needs to serve as solely an advocacy group and not a student government is "asinine."

"Student advocacy is not the end-all be-all," Shakely said.

Low attendance was an issue with UPUA cited by many members. Chamberlin said it was the "single biggest problem" with UPUA. More efficient meetings would result from better attendance, some members said.

Mallory Gold, former media relations director, said a negative aspect of UPUA was that "there wasn't a lot of time to pass legislation directly in response to student needs."

Chamberlin said UPUA would have been able to accomplish more if it had more time. He said the delay in getting a full or even near full assembly added to that problem.

"When judging the first year of UPUA, it's important to understand that it was only six months," he said. "I think you would have seen more accomplished if we had ... fall elections."

One of the things Chamberlin said UPUA could continue working on next year is doing a "better job establishing a relationship with the [University] Faculty Senate."

Holmes agreed, saying UPUA needed to "bridge the gap between UPUA and the Faculty Senate."

Chamberlin said UPUA's relationship with the Senate, as well as other groups, would improve as those groups "got used to the fact that UPUA exists."

Sean Flynn, former facilities committee chairman, said UPUA has already established a "good working relationship between the students on campus and the [Office of the Physical Plant] OPP," adding that he sat on several committees that had a direct impact on the campus, such as the HUB-Robeson Center advisory board.

The most important thing for UPUA to do in moving forward, Chamberlin and several other members said, is to have a "strong transition process."

"We established a tradition of working very closely within the organization and coming to consensus decisions," Chamberlin said. "I hope that continues."