Student Government Council meets at Pitt

For those who love to follow student politics, Nordy’s Place was a proverbial who’s who of… For those who love to follow student politics, Nordy’s Place was a proverbial who’s who of the city’s student leaders last night.

Think “The Avengers,” or wrestling’s “Four Horsemen.” Remember when Johnny Cash teamed up with Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and Kris Kristofferson? It’s that big. We’re talking about the Miami Heat of student governments, here.

The group calls itself the Pittsburgh Student Government Council. It consists of leaders from 10 Pittsburgh student governments. Last night’s meeting was the group’s first at Pitt.

First on the agenda: creating an engaging and effective website.

“I’m happy to volunteer our resources toward building a website,” Pitt Student Government Board President Charlie Shull said. “But a new board comes in December, and I can’t speak for them.”

After watching his colleagues sweat it out, Carnegie Mellon’s representative grabbed a microphone.

“I’m sure we can come up with something,” Jon Kowalski said. “We’re CMU.”

“Right, didn’t you invent the iPhone software?” Duquesne’s James Regar asked.

“Well, not me personally, but yeah.”

The folks from Pitt, Point Park, Duquesne, Carnegie Mellon, Carlow and Pitt’s Graduate and Professional Student Assembly — Chatham’s representative was absent — also addressed the group’s main purpose of creating a larger student presence in the city and state government.

The group will meet with City Council members after one of the Council’s weekly meetings next month.

Together they intend to start a student commission that consults directly with the Council. Members of the student commission would be appointed by City Council and likely consist of non-PSGC members.

Shull and other leaders said keeping the student commission separate from the PSGC is vital to protecting students’ interests because commission members would be Council-appointed, making it difficult for them to oppose the city during a conflict.

They also discussed the continuing woes of South Side residents, who have had several run-ins with rowdy students as of late.

“I’m not trying to sound like an old man, but it’s obnoxious,” Shull said. “I refuse to go there myself.”

Shull added that the high density of bars on Carson Street doesn’t make resolving the problem any easier.

At the meeting’s 60-minute mark, the group switched to discussing state governmental relations, in particular the looming Port Authority route cuts.

GPSA president Nila Devanath suggested sending students to Harrisburg to lobby the state for more transit help.

The group did not make a formal decision about the transit-funding crisis. Its next meeting will be in late October.