Correction appended: Sept. 6, 2012.
The University Park Undergraduate Association covered decisions to be made about how funds for campus renovations will be used at its meeting Wednesday night.
UPUA Vice President Katelyn Mullen met with Vice President for Student Affairs Damon Sims on Tuesday to discuss whether or not to follow through with the funding.
The money was originally planned to fund the expansion of tennis courts, the Intramural Building and a new Natatorium building, Mullen said.
“They wanted to reallocate and find where they can put the money,” Mullen (junior-supply chain and information systems) said.
A facilities fees board meeting will be held today in the HUB-Robeson Center from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m.
“A lot of staff and administration will be there. For student representation, we’re going to have representatives from GSA and a few others from UPUA,” Chairman of UPUA Facilities and Services David Harrington (senior-political science) said.
UPUA members that will attend include President Courtney Lennartz, Harrington, Trey Werley, Dan Tauriello, Laurel Petrulionis and Dray Krishnan.
The first piece of legislation voted on at the meeting was the ListServ Access of Student Leaders. It passed unanimously and will give UPUA permission to ask Damon Sims for access to the ListServ messages sent out to all University Park undergraduate students.
If access is granted, it will be given to two UPUA chief officers, Lennartz and Mullen.
If put in place, the ListServ messages would be sent to undergraduate students’ Penn State emails.
UPUA On-Campus Representative Dray Krishnan said the ListServ would be used to communicate various topics including an explanation of what UPUA is, important messages in times of crisis and give a student leader perspective on specific issues.
“We don’t intend to use it than more than what would be appropriate. It would be general information,” Krishnan (sophomore-accounting and economics) said. “We’re only looking to pursue [communication] from UPUA standpoint.”
The second piece of legislation, which was also passed unanimously, regarded the UPUA’s position to co-sponsor Constitution Day 2012 activities on campus.
Constitution Day is annually celebrated on Sept. 17. UPUA will collaborate with the Office of Undergraduate Education to create politically affiliated activities that students can easily get involved in.
They will stress the importance of ID Expiration Date Stickers that students can obtain on campus, assist in “Writing Blocks,” and push University Park students, especially freshmen, to register to vote.
The “Writing Blocks” are cubes that will be placed in a major location on campus. They’re covered in blackboard paint for students to write down their thoughts in relation to certain constitutional topics.
“Students can express their opinion with chalk,” Chairman of the Assembly Spencer Malloy (senior-philosophy and agroecology) said.
One plan to encourage voting registration has been to pass out voter registration forms in large lecture classes to reach as many students as possible.
An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that a meeting would take place Thursday to discuss whether funds from the facilities fee would be used to pay fines associated with Penn State’s NCAA sanctions. Intercollegiate Athletics is revising plans for the Tennis/Natatorium project because of a funding shortfall, as a result of construction costs and changes to the Athletics five-year capital plan, Penn State spokeswoman Lisa Powers said. The Facilities Fee Advisory Committee was asked to consider approving use of the fee for solely the Natatorium project, putting the Tennis Facility project on hold. Powers also said student fees will not be used to pay for the fine incurred by the NCAA’s sanctions against Penn State. The Daily Collegian apologizes for this error.
