Hours after the Movin’ On committee announced rock band MGMT as the headliner for this year’s free spring music festival, a UPUA representative position was added to that committee.
Though liaisons to the committee have existed in the past, the University Park Undergraduate Association approved it as an official position by voting to amend the bylaws. The official representative position was created to have more involvement in the preparation process.
Dray Krishnan, chair of Internal Development and On-Campus Representative, said the legislation was a “simple policy change” to make the liaison an official position.
The legislation was passed unanimously by the assembly.
Rishi Kumar Mittal, Smeal College of Business Representative, introduced additional legislation that would allocate $12,000 of UPUA money to Movin’ On. The money would be used to secure the other two performers, not including MGMT.
Mittal (junior-finance) admitted there was concern over whether Movin’ On currently had enough money to get some of the higher level acts they’ve been considering.
Though most of the general assembly, including UPUA President Courtney Lennartz, said they would approve of the funds, there was an issue that prevented a vote on the legislation.
Off-Campus Representative Anthony Christina (senior-history) said he opposed the legislation at this time, referring to the budget policy accordance 8.8.2.8.
The policy states that “all funding legislation of co-funding events will be required to be brought to the floor via committee.”
Krishnan (sophomore-economics and accounting) also expressed that bringing the legislation directly to the floor was wrong for the large amount of money.
“I don’t think that’s an appropriate way to allocate $12,000,” he said.
The assembly voted and a motion to hold off on the legislation passed. The allocation of the funds will be discussed in committees and be reintroduced in January.
In her report, Lennartz (senior-health policy and administration) discussed the student leader roundtable held last week with administrators to talk about the recent issue with the Chi Omega sorority photo.
“We spent an hour and a half on ways to collaborate and raise awareness,” Lennartz said.
The diversity task force, which met for the first time on Friday, was not up for discussion about being added to the diversity committee, although that conversation should take place next semester, she said.
The five separate committees of the diversity task force that were created will hold conference calls over winter break and will then meet every two to three weeks, she said.
The assembly also elected Melissa McCleery (sophomore-political science and women’s studies), who is currently the College of Liberal the Arts representative, as the new chair of the Academic Affairs committee. Current chair Rick Pooler will be stepping down at the end of this semester.
