SGB Board at its meeting in Nordy’s Place on Tuesday, Feb. 11.
During its weekly meeting on Tuesday at Nordy’s Place, Student Government Board announced a new academic calendar for the 2025-2026 school year and addressed growing allocations concerns.
Board member Mercy Akanmu announced the reversion of the academic calendar, which will make the final exam schedule a full week rather than two half-weeks, as it was during the 2024-2025 academic year.
“This past year, we had a very awful calendar, and our finals started in the middle of the week,” Akanmu said. “Next year, it’s going to go the way it was in previous years, with the last day of class on a Friday and finals starting on a Monday.”
Despite funding challenges, allocations chair Nicole Zheng plans to continue fulfilling allocations to the best of SGB’s ability for the rest of the spring semester.
“The Traditions and Service funds are now both exhausted,” Zheng said. “But new initiatives will still be in operation for the rest of the academic year.”
Zheng announced the SGB allocations website will be updated this weekend to include new information for the sake of “increasing transparency around funding.”
“The tentative allocations dates and budgets are on the website for the rest of the semester,” communications chair Rachel Smookler said. “We’re also going to start posting allocation request logs on the website starting this week.”
Board member Evan Levasseur voiced how the board will scrutinize allocations more heavily for the remainder of the school year, regardless of the dollar amount requested, after a close vote.
“Since we are getting more allocations, we will be scrutinizing requests more in the future,” Levasseur said. “Clubs who come in for funding who haven’t been funded before or have low dollar amounts still should be scrutinized to a higher degree.”
Board member Andrew Elliott stressed SGB’s desire to be fair to all campus organizations in the allocations process.
“Every year it gets harder for us to fully fund requests later in the year just because of the nature of money,” Elliott said. “I personally believe we need to be fair to every club.”
SGB’s website has been updated with new info on the candidates in the upcoming board elections. Updates with new information will continue to be released as the election draws closer.
“The executive tickets for the 2025-2026 election are now posted on the website,” Smookler said. “Board member photos and bios will be posted soon.”
Allocations:
Asian Student Alliance requested $15,000 to hold a speaker event. After debate, the board modified and approved the request for $10,000.
Women’s Club Basketball requested $7,630 to attend a tournament. The board modified and approved the request for $6,747.33.
University of Pittsburgh Television requested $3,565.16 for new production equipment. The board modified and approved the request to $3,815.79.
Audiology and Hearing Club requested $2,263.40 to attend an event. The board approved this request in full.
Muslim Student Association requested $4,000 to provide food at four dinner events. The board approved this request in full.
Club Squash requested $2,305.52 to attend a competition. The board modified and approved the request to $2,175.
African Student Organization requested $3,721.76 to hold an event. The board modified and approved this request to $2,871.76.
Board member Maddie McCann Colvard abstained from voting on all allocations this evening.
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