SGB slates, candidates announced at Tuesday meeting

With the start of campaigning for Student Government Board elections only a few weeks away, Marcus Edelstein, who chairs the board’s elections committee, announced the final list of candidates at the Tuesday evening board meeting.

He said there are four slates and one independent candidate running. The full list of candidates is:

• Dream slate — Danielle Floyd for president, alongside Alison Mendoza, Derek Dressler and Isabel Lam for board
• For You Panthers slate — Arjun Manjunath for president, alongside Bhuvitha Chagantipati, Celeste Lintz and Sophia Shapiro for board
• Reform slate — Andrew Hunt and Tom Von Iven for board
• Steel City slate — Daniel Temmallo, Zeyad Amr and Vidya Surti for board
• Independent candidate Corbin Makar for board

“We have our campaign workshop and mixer this weekend, which will basically be all the candidates in my committee explaining all of the rules,” Edelstein said. “Campaigning officially begins on Feb. 1, so that’s really exciting.”

Besides announcing the official presidential and board candidates, SGB members also went over upcoming events and Oakland community news.

President Harshitha Ramanan mentioned two upcoming Black History Month events hosted by Pitt’s Office for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion — “Racial Equity Consciousness: An Overview” on Feb. 15 and “Understanding Racial Oppression and Advancing Racial Liberation” on Feb. 22.

Board member Brennan Conway reminded students of the ongoing Oscar prediction game, mentioned a Friday event at noon titled “Census, Data and the Reapportionment Process in Pennsylvania” and gave an update about grants for the Year of Data and Society. Conway said the last chance to apply for a grant is Feb. 1.

Dominic Victoria, the chair of the community and governmental relations committee, said he attended the Oakland Planning and Development Corp. meeting earlier Tuesday evening which featured Mayor Ed Gainey. Community members discussed the Oakland Crossings proposal, a plan by Shadyside developer Walnut Capital to rezone 17 acres of Central Oakland, at the meeting. Victoria said he, along with the committee’s vice chair, are “vehemently opposed” to the proposal.

“We will be continuing to advocate against that because we don’t think it’s good for the future of the neighborhood or students,” Victoria said.

He also brought up the unionization effort among Coffee Tree baristas, which includes students from Pitt. They are holding a rally this Sunday at 10 a.m. at the Coffee Tree location in Shadyside. Victoria urged students to attend and show support.

SGB member Daniel Temmallo said he and fellow board member Matt Moore met with the Dietrich School Undergraduate Council to evaluate a name change to a minor in the Slavic Languages and Literature department, among other topics. The “Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian” minor will be amended to the “Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin and Serbian” minor. 

To conclude the meeting, Ramanan announced that Pitt police Chief James Loftus will join the board’s Feb. 8 meeting for a Q&A. A staff member from the Civic Engagement Club will speak at the Feb. 22 meeting.

Allocations

The allocations committee reviewed one request which was denied in full.

The Taaza Bollywood-Fusion and Raas dance competition coordinators requested $2,115 to provide food and lodging for about 100 Pitt students who will attend the competition. The committee denied the request because it “did not deem this food to be educationally significant enough to the event itself to justify our funding,” according to Isabel Weir, the committee’s chair. The committee also said it could not justify providing funds for lodging because the event is located close to campus, and there are free and convenient ways for students to get to their on-campus housing.