Last night’s weekly University Park Undergraduate Association meeting focused heavily on the impending elections and the code that governs elections procedures.
The meeting opened with several additions to the agenda.
Following the additions, Dray Krishnan, Internal Development Committee Chair, gave a presentation about the new elections code.
Last week, Krishnan (sophomore-accounting and economics) introduced a different form of a revised elections code.
However, those revisions were met with objections from the assembly.
As previously reported, many representatives felt they were not given adequate time to review the code before voting.
Members passed a motion to postpone the passing of the code.
At last night’s meeting, Krishnan presented a different code.
He said that the new code is six pages shorter than last year’s 18-page code.
Krishnan also said that the “definition of campaigning has been simplified.”
Following Krishnan’s presentation, Courtney Lennartz gave her report.
Lennartz (senior-health and human development) said the State Patty’s Day Task Force video was released on Monday.
According to Lennartz, the video has over 7,000 votes.
After caucus breakouts, the assembly began the process of confirming the elections commissioners.
Dan Tauriello, David Harrington, Justin Laskowski and TJ Bard were confirmed as deputy elections commissioners with a secret ballot vote of 31-1-2.
They will serve as the Deputy Commissioner of Information Technology, Deputy Commissioner of Candidacy, Deputy Commissioner of Events and Deputy Commissioner of Campaigning, respectively.
The assembly then began proceedings to confirm a head elections commissioner. Tonia Damiano, YOUSRV director, and John Zang, Chief of Staff, were both interviewed by the Internal Development Committee for the position at the committee meeting on Tuesday night.
Krishnan said the committee was split on which candidate to confirm and felt it was best to present the candidates to the assembly.
Each candidate was given five minutes to address the assembly and ten minutes to field questions.
Damiano said she wanted to become elections commissioner in order to further serve the assembly.
“I have a strong passion for UPUA,” Damiano (senior-finance) said.
Zang (senior-international politics) said he felt he was best suited for the position because of his experience serving in UPUA and his knowledge of the code.
He also said, if confirmed, he would be ready to begin his duties immediately.
“Give me the green light, I’m ready to hit the ground running tomorrow,” Zang said to the assembly.
Both candidates said if they were confirmed, they would immediately resign from their respective positions in UPUA to prevent conflict of interest.
Following the presentations, the assembly entered into debate regarding the candidates.
At-Large Representative Ryan Brown encouraged the assembly to carefully consider each candidate.
“I strongly encourage all representatives to look at the past of the individual,” Brown (senior- integrative arts) said.
Brown said he supported Damiano.
Lennartz gave her support to Zang, saying she felt he was the “only one” ready to begin the process.
After a secret ballot, John Zang was confirmed with a vote of 23-13-1.
Zang said his focus now is moving forward and will work with the Deputy Commissioner of Candidacy in a “very hard push” to encourage students to run.
Registration begins Monday.
The assembly then moved to take action on additional legislation.
Krishnan and Anthony Christina co-sponsored the legislation.
As previously reported, Christina raised objections over the code introduced last week. However, Christina gave his full support to the latest revisions.
“The code is in a good place,” Christina (senior- history and political science) said.
Following discussion of the legislation, Policy 14-07 Elections Code of 2013 passed with a vote of 35-2-0.
Last night’s meeting also saw the first bill of the association brought to the floor.
Bill 01-07 made the Elections Commission Funding budget comparable to last year’s budget.
The assembly passed unanimously.
