It is that fateful time of year again when the undergraduate student government here at University Park begins its transition and the students trusted with representing undergraduates are elected.  The University Park Undergraduate Association (UPUA) is having its annual election today from 7:00am to 10:00pm at election.psu.edu.  I will spare you any long drawn out jeremiad about the importance that voting has both as a part of our social contract or our sense of civic duty, and instead focus on the real and lasting effects that the UPUA Elections can have.

Having been the Representative of the College of the Liberal Arts since my freshman year (I am now a junior) I have witnessed firsthand the importance that the right people can have on the ability of UPUA, and by default the entire University Park undergraduate body, to enact lasting changes for the betterment of academics and student life.  This is not to say that no other student group is important, quite the contrary in fact, but UPUA is the student government and has the most authority to accomplish things like changing the Board of Trustees’ committee structure to include students or to change academic policies to make all undergraduates’ lives easier.  UPUA, for all its flaws, is still important and demands your attention.

UPUA’s importance, and the consequential importance of having the right people in the right positions, is part of the reason why I am posting this here.  In order for UPUA to be an effective organization next year, I need you to vote for both myself as the Liberal Arts Representative for my third term as well as Courtney Lennartz & Katelyn Mullen as President and Vice President.  Simply go to the election website above, login, click on “Penn State Student Government Elections – Spring 2012” and select the candidates that will do the best job of serving the interests of Liberal Arts students and the entire University.  Both myself and the Lennartz/Mullen have been endorsed by your Liberal Arts Undergraduate Council, who unanimously decided that we were the best candidates for the job.

Please take the two minutes that it takes to vote and vote Lennartz/Mullen and Zang to make sure the UPUA is able to realize its full potential in the coming year.

Sincerely, your Liberal Arts Representative to UPUA and Liberal Arts Student Senator to the University Faculty Senate

John Zang