The University Park Undergraduate Association (UPUA) will convene tonight in the HUB-Robeson Center to conduct its first general assembly meeting of the school year.
The agenda, created Monday night during a meeting of the UPUA executive board, includes a report from UPUA president Hillary Lewis regarding the chiefs of staff appointments and committee reports, among other items.
Lewis, who has been trying to get "everyone on the same page," said she wants to have an impact on the Penn State community so that her constituency can see "we're actually doing stuff beneficial for the university."
"My No. 1 prediction and goal is to make sure UPUA gains credibility among the student body, and we can make positive changes," she said.
She hopes students will attend the meeting to voice their opinions, as well as fill open positions on committees, she added.
College of Engineering representative Ralph Crivello said he wants to see UPUA help students more during the upcoming year.
"Hopefully, we'll be able to gauge student opinion a little better," he said. "Students consider us a joke. We want to serve the students, but the best way is through shared government."
Crivello said UPUA is planning to tackle some issues that relate to students directly, such as instituting a book swap.
In addition, he said, the academic affairs committee is trying to "clean up the mess" of the transition that occurred last year from the former student government, Undergraduate Student Government (USG), to UPUA.
Though Lewis predicts a credible reputation for UPUA to take hold, her presidency has already come under fire from various persons on campus. Safeguard Old State director of advocacy initiatives Tom Shakely recently called her decision to not attend a recent Association of Big Ten Students (ABTS) conference "inappropriate," "arrogant" and "an insult to students."
ABTS, which held its most recent biannual conference in mid-August, had originally invited Lewis to attend with UPUA, but later told her she could only attend independent from UPUA, which, as a result of legislation passed, is still not recognized by the ABTS.
Lewis has said that gaining recognition with the ABTS is not her priority. Last year's inaugural UPUA president and current internal development committee chairman Jay Chamberlin said he thinks tonight's meeting will be "a good first meeting" to kick off "a critical year."
The internal development committee, he said, will be implementing a five-year plan, which will "affect how this organization is able to function in the future."
He also said he believes Lewis will oversee a "more driven, more motivated organization."
"Hillary is, I would say, more of an enthusiastic individual than myself, and I think she's going to be able to take that enthusiasm and put it into a lot of UPUA's activities," he said.
He added that students should be on the lookout for upcoming events that UPUA will be planning to help kick off the year.
