Student leaders hope their Sunday afternoon "gameplan" meeting will lend a variety of University Park Undergraduate Association (UPUA) initiatives some increased momentum.
UPUA President Gavin Keirans said he's hoping to turn a lot of the semester's conversations into action. UPUA needs to go "full steam ahead" with many of its proposed initiatives, Keirans said.
During Sunday's "agenda-setting step," Keirans (senior-business management) said he discussed having each committee create a 90-day plan to establish a timeline for both fall semester plans and those that will stretch into the spring.
If the assembly approves the 90-day plan, it would require each committee in UPUA to submit a week-by-week outline of what they will be doing for the next three months.
The individual plans would be followed up by a progress report, Keirans said, where committees would report whether each of their goals were accomplished -- and why.
Keirans said the plans would be made available to the student body, published through UPUA's Web site.
While there has been a lot of conversation about major initiatives, Keirans said, he believes there are some sections of UPUA that need to establish concrete goals -- and this system of benchmarks in a more public forum could help that happen.
UPUA Governmental Affairs Committee Chairwoman Colleen Smith said she found Sunday's meeting helpful. Colleen Smith (sophomore-biology) said she was glad to have the input of the entire assembly, giving each member the opportunity to voice his or her opinion on what should happen with each initiative.
"We've had some pretty good accomplishments, but we could be doing a lot more," Colleen Smith said. "We have the talent and the capabilities."
Medical amnesty is one of the major initiatives discussed Sunday that Keirans said he hopes to see come to fruition by next semester. He called it a common-sense safety measure he wants to move along as soon as possible.
UPUA Director of University Relations Chris Smith said he has recently been in meetings with officials from the State College Borough and the university to have a medical amnesty policy implemented.
In all the talks that have taken place, Chris Smith (senior-political science) said he did not anticipate any roadblocks that would stop the proposed policy from being put in place.
"I'm excited to try and get things moving before next semester,"Chris Smith said.
