Members of the Student Government Board speak during their public meeting on Tuesday in Nordy’s Place.
Student Government Board President Ryan Young opened the Feb. 13 meeting by discussing allocations policies and procedures.
“The Allocations Policy and Procedures Task Force has been in a writing session, and we’re going to work towards implementing and fixing parts of the allocations manual,” Young said.
Young also introduced two referendum questions, which are now on the SGB website under the 2024 elections tab.
The first referendum question is on a new constitutional proposal for the Future Planning Task Force, which asks to merge three vice presidential positions into one. The proposal also asks for an overhaul of the assembly to give more power to student leaders and an updated student government board governing code.
The second referendum question asked to raise the student activity fee by $20 or less due to the board experiencing 20% inflation in prices and demand.
“We’ve seen a high rise in allocation requests this year and we’re trying to raise the fee to meet the demand,” Young said.
Sarah Siddiqui, vice president of operations, said increased funds is a big priority for her to help student organizations get funding for projects they are passionate about.
“If you know of a service organization that would not be able to get funding due to allocations manual limitations, please connect them with me,” Siddiqui said.
Allocations Chair Maddie McCann-Colvard said the board received a lot of requests this week and is continuing to get them at an unprecedented rate, so organizations should expect a potential delay in their responses. The Allocations Committee will also be moving the request deadline from Tuesday at midnight to Sunday at midnight.
“This is going to give us more time to review requests prior to hearings,” McCann-Colvard said. “This way, we can contact business managers ahead of time to get things like documentation and requests that are pretty straightforward out of the way.”
In addition to discussing allocations reviews, Vice President of Initiatives Katie Fitzpatrick also said she worked on creating applications for the Peer Survivor Support Network, which is a collaboration with Pittsburgh Action Against Rape.
“This is supposed to be an avenue for survivors of sexual assault, and I think it will be a very student-focused one,” Fitzpatrick said. “It is always good to have options available for survivors.”
Fitzpatrick also said she worked with the Wellness Committee for Planned Parenthood and other reproductive health groups to form a multiple-day convention related to reproductive rights, health and justice next Thursday.
“Please meet some local abortion access areas and local organizers,” Fitzpatrick said. “Join us in the SOOS [Student Office of Sustainability] at 5 p.m. on Friday to make aftercare bags for people who’ve had abortions and to learn. Then Saturday, join us at the assembly room for college making and to learn more about reproductive justice.”
Fitzpatrick also said she met with the WPU renovations task force, with the goal of raising awareness for more multicultural, LGBTQ+ and stress relief spaces to be included in the renovation.
In addition to working on WPU renovations, several board members including Olivia Rosati and Matt Jurich are working with Workers United for general student and faculty rights.
“It went really well and I’m super excited to see so many people passionate about labor rights, because it’s something really close to my heart,” Rosati said.
Jurich said so many people showed up to the meeting that they were people sitting on tables, “which was exciting.”
“One thing we are working on is a response from students,” Jurich said. “If you know any student workers or any worker in general at Pitt, whether they be a student, staff, faculty member, grad student, and they had any issue at Pitt being mistreated at work, we’d love to hear that feedback and pass it along to Pitt admin, especially the chancellor.”
Young concluded the meeting by reminding students of the upcoming elections as well as a panel to discuss new positions.
Allocations:
The American Marketing Association requested funds to attend a conference in New Orleans. The board approved this request at a conference cap of $3,000.
The Society of Asian Scientists and Engineers requested $14,500 in partnership with other organizations for a guest speaker. At the recommendation of the board, SASE withdrew this request to resubmit in the future.
Black Action Society requested $30,000 for a guest speaker. After debate, the board approved this request in full.
Dhirana, an Indian classical dance competition, requested funds to hold their dance event. The board amended and approved this request at $12,440.
The Black Men’s Collective requested $3,000 for a social event. The board denied this request in full.
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