SGB hosts first meeting of the semester, discusses board vacancy

At the first Student Government Board meeting of the semester on Tuesday, SGB President Sarah Mayer announced an open board member position. 

“We have a vacancy on the board, and we’ve garnered a lot of interest in that, but we still have our interest form open, so please fill it out by this Friday,” Mayer said. “Next Tuesday will be the public interview. There will be a question form up on our website sometime next week so you can all submit questions you want the candidate to answer.”

In addition to the board vacancy, SGB is also taking applications for first-year council, an opportunity for 12 different first-year and transfer students to develop student government initiatives. 

“If you are a first-year student and are interested in SGB or want to learn more about the University in general, I think it’s a great way to get involved,” Chief of Staff Jaydep Halder said. 

The Allocations Committee is also filling two positions for first-year and transfer students. 

“If you’re not familiar with allocations, we work to distribute student activity funds to clubs on campus,” Allocations Chair Nicole Zhang said. “I want to highlight that we are also recruiting two first-year students for spots on the allocations committee, like the first year council.”

Board member Katie Emmert said SGB is also working on initiatives that prioritize students, tenants and people who live on campus. 

“I’m chairing an ad-hoc committee called renter’s first, and we work with tenants who are living off campus to navigate different landlord problems,” Emmert said. “We also work with the Pittsburgh Housing Justice table and different community organizations, so we’ll be following different things in the city and passing our resources to students who need assistance.”

Emmert, who also serves on the Support, Advocacy and Prevention Committee, said she is working a gallery exhibit for survivors of sexual assault., as well as advocating for the students arrested at June’s on-campus pro-Palenstine protest. 

“In advocacy prevention, [Support, Advocacy and Prevention] Chair [Ashley] White and some other students are planning a gallery and art exhibit for survivors of sexual assault. Submissions are open if anyone wants to submit an art piece related to survivorship,” Emmert said. “While I’m on the board this year, I’m also going to be prioritizing advocating for more student spaces and advocating for Palenstine and all the protestors who are arrested.”

In addition to this initiative, community and governmental relations chair Marley Pinsky said SGB is working on increasing voter turnout. 

“I’m hoping to do some more efforts leading up to the election, hopefully collaborating with some other student groups that are focused on voter registration to increase turnout on campus,” Pinsky said. 

Additionally, Pinsky said she hopes to continue with SGB tenant town halls. 

“We are also hoping to see our tenant town halls again, which happens every fall and spring for students to learn from a panel of community organizations that are focused on preserving tenant rights and spreading awareness of resources that can help student renters for the first time,” Pinsky said. 

As election chair, Charles Rutkowski said he is working on getting more than the minimum number of required candidates in the SGB election. 

“The past few years, the Board has only had the minimum number of people running and then last year, the president only had one person running,” Rutkowski said. The goal is to make the process a little more engaging and get some more people to run.”

Additionally, board member Mercy Akanmu said SGB is working on expanding diversity, equity and inclusion education. 

“I’ve been working on issues that include expanding DEI education throughout all of the colleges, whether that is the business school or Dietrich, as well as all of the other colleges we have here,” Akanmu said. 

Lastly, Student Office of Sustainability liaison Rachel Garcia said she hopes to create a centralized curriculum about the danger of single-use plastics and water quality, as well as creating a plastic-free week. 

“One of the biggest things I want to do is oversee the single-use plastics task force that was started last year,” Garcia said. “I seek members to be a part of that task force, so if anyone wants to join, please reach out to me.”