SGB talks plans for coming semester

Rolling their chairs around the conference room table, the Student Government Board convened…Rolling their chairs around the conference room table, the Student Government Board convened with lighthearted and playful banter in their empty office Tuesday night.

SGB addressed goals for the upcoming year during the Board’s constitutionally required summer meeting in room 848 of the William Pitt Union. The Board did not announce if the meeting was open to the public. All Board members were in attendance.

But after informal beginnings, President James Landreneau called the group to focus with a list of internal and external dealings, including transitions within its own office.

SGB is currently operating with a temporary webmaster, Michael Nites, who also serves as the Allocations Committee chair.

“We cannot operate with a temporary webmaster,” Landreneau said. “We need to find someone, preferably young, who can transition from Board to Board or at least work the academic term from September to April.”

They are currently holding Allocations Committee interviews and will be adding webmaster interviews in the coming weeks.

“From here on, we are trying to remove all of the inefficiencies of SGB in the past,” Landreneau said.

After Landreneau asked the Board if there was anything in particular members wanted to discuss, Board member Natalie Rothenberger said, “We need to spice up the office.”

“Yeah, because our walls are really boring and white,” Board member Megan McGrath added in agreement.

“If you want to bring in something Pitt-related, please feel free to do so,” Landreneau replied.

While the Board was looking to create a more aesthetically pleasing office environment by covering its white walls with Pitt garb, discussion came around to the Collegiate Readership Program.

The Board faces decisions on the fate of the Readership Program, which gives undergraduate students access to The New York Times and USA Today. The Readership Program underwent changes this past year with newly installed locked-drop-boxes across campus, which is set to expire in December. Landreneau said the program is one of his chief objectives for the fall.

“We absolutely need to have a good transition with this program,” Landreneau said. “We need to talk about how to make it more sustainable, how to fund it.”

The Board also hopes to branch out by creating more accessible town-hall meetings.

Landreneau said he would prefer town-hall meetings that are “on the move,” preferably placing them in an “ideal” place and time for students, rather than the previous location of Nordy’s Place before public meetings.

Board member Halim Genus agreed that Board member accessibility is an important issue, and it is one he is planning on addressing directly.

“I am planning to go to different groups on campus, interact and engage in their meetings,” Genus said. “In the end, I will be able to tell them a bit about SGB and how we are here for them.”

The Board didn’t have any allocations to vote on at the meeting.

SGB’s first official public meeting will be held Tuesday, Sept. 4 at 8:45 p.m. in Nordy’s Place.