Danielle Floyd wins SGB presidency for 2022-23 academic year

Danielle Floyd will serve as the president of Student Government Board for the 2022-23 school year. She beat opponent Arjun Manjunath of the For You Panthers slate in Tuesday’s election with 59.09% of the vote — a margin of 687 votes.

Floyd, who ran as a member of the Dream slate, said she felt “very excited” and grateful after hearing the results announced Tuesday evening.

“I want to thank all the people who supported me throughout this whole campaign and had my back,” Floyd said.

A total of 3,779 students voted — about 16.3% of Pitt’s undergraduate student body. This is a decrease from last year’s turnout of 4,804 voters, or 20.5% of the student body. 

Despite his loss, Manjunath said he is happy for his opponent.

“I’d like to congratulate Danielle Floyd, she worked so hard on her campaign,” Manjunath said, “I’m really proud of this and I’m happy to have done this campaign.”

Results were announced at SGB’s weekly public meeting in Nordy’s Place on Tuesday. Students were able to vote earlier in the day from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Isabel Lam, another member of the Dream slate, received the most votes for board member. She received 1,424 votes, or 15.92% of voters. Lam said she is happy to be done campaigning.

“Sometimes you lose the light at the end of the tunnel,” Lam said. “But at the end, you show that your community is there. I’m so happy to begin the work that will occur next year and work with all these amazing individuals.”

Alison Linares Mendoza and Derek Dressler will join fellow Dream slate members Floyd and Lam  on the board next year.

Sophia Shapiro, Celeste Lintz and Bhuvitha Chagantipati of the For You Panthers slate also won board seats, along with Daniel Temmallo of the Steel City slate and independent candidate Corbin Makar.

Makar will serve his first term as a board member next year. He said he is looking forward to the experience.

“I’m really excited to make it on the board,” Makar said. “[Campaigning as an independent candidate] was a lot of hard work, but it paid off in the end.”

Allocations

Kappa Kappa Psi — a national honorary band service fraternity — requested $1,195.62 to fund registration, ground transportation and lodging for four people to their district convention in Delaware. The board approved $851.72 for ground transportation, registration and one hotel room.

The Pre-Medical Organization for Minority Students requested $3,350.14 to pay for registration, lodging and airfare for four people to attend the annual medical conference put on by their parent organization in Florida. The board approved $3,000 to the conference cap.

The Muslim Student Association requested $2,400 to pay for an event that is a part of their speaker series and will feature Sheik Saad Tasleem, a Muslim scholar. The board approved the request in full.

The Pakistani Student Association requested $1,650 to host their annual Mock Shadi, which translates to “fake wedding,” for the first time in two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The board approved $1,349.99, which aligns with the documented costs the organization sent to the allocations committee.

The Political Science Student Association requested $2,272.78 to fund ground transportation and lodging for 15 people to attend a trip the association is taking to Washington, D.C. The board approved the request in full.

Pan-Caribbean Alliance requested $9,211.71 to pay for clothes, equipment, photographer and DJ for their yearly fashion show. The committee originally recommended the board deny funding in part, due to the impression that the event’s DJ and photographer were members of the organization, and payments cannot be made to members of an organization. A representative from PCA said the DJ and photographer are not members. The board then moved to amend the committee recommendation and approved in full.