Howard: Can you pass the SGB quiz?

I’ve written a great deal over the past four months about the need for greater… I’ve written a great deal over the past four months about the need for greater transparency in Student Government Board operations, and I’ve been pleased to also document the progress made by SGB President Charlie Shull toward making SGB more open.

Indeed, SGB is becoming more open every week, making changes that excite me as well as other student journalists involved in campus media. But I’ve started to question the extent to which rank-and-file students are taking advantage of this new transparency.

To find out if students are paying attention, I asked a random sample of 10 students a series of four questions about SGB, the source of SGB’s funds and the allocations process.

The questions are as follows:

1. Where does the money in SGB’s budget come from?

2. Do you know what the Student Activity Fee is, and if so, how much is it?

3. Where do the proceeds from the Student Activity Fee go?

4. Can you describe the allocations process?

Of the 10 students questioned, seven did not know the answer to question one, and nine could not answer questions 2-4 correctly. Although the questions might seem unimportant to some readers, these questions strike at the heart of how both our student government and many of the clubs on our campus are funded.

For instance, the answers to questions 1-3 explain how SGB is funded and where the money it allocates to student groups come from. SGB is tasked with allocating more than half of the $2,429,238 expected in revenue from this academic year’s Student Activity Fee, which is $80 per semester.

The nearly $2.5 million collected from the Student Activity Fee is a significant amount of money. To put it in perspective, the $160 yearly total paid by each student amounts to about $25 more than the proposed tuition tax would have cost an in-state undergrad at Pitt.

More than being a lot of money, the Student Activity Fee and the allocations process play a large role in determining the activities of every club and student organization on Pitt’s campus. The speakers brought in by the College Democrats and College Republicans, the Playboy model brought in by Pitt Program Council last year and even the existence of Telefact are all funded by the Student Activity Fee.

Now that the allocations process no longer takes place fully behind closed doors, it’s especially possible for Pitt students to influence it as long as they understand it. Disbursing a total of $1,276,715, the allocations process involves the entire SGB and the Allocations Committee in making decisions on funding requests submitted by student groups.

In short, the Student Activity Fee is a lot of money, and the allocations process constitutes an important part of our experience at Pitt.

Moreover, as SGB becomes more transparent and further reforms the allocations process, students have unprecedented access to the decision-making process behind allocations decisions and might even have the ability to influence specific allocations requests in the future. But all of these reforms mean nothing if students fail to make use of them and educate themselves about how our money is being spent.

After all, The Pitt News cannot possibly cover the minutiae of every meeting, and students should not rely solely on campus media organizations to inform them of SGB’s spending. Stories fall through the cracks and an allocations decision that some students might find important or of interest might not make it into print.

Instead of relying on The Pitt News, students should personally attend SGB’s public meetings — held every Tuesday at 8:45 p.m. on the eighth floor of the Union — and see for themselves how their money is being spent.

With the new transparency initiatives in place, students have few excuses to complain about SGB and instead have to start accepting responsibility themselves if the Board makes unpopular decisions. If this year’s Board chooses to spend $60,000 on fiberglass panther statues, we’ll all have had plenty of time to take notice and stop it only if rank-and-file students begin to participate in SGB’s operations.

Visit Giles’ blog, www.gilesbhoward.com/blog, or e-mail Giles at gbh4@pitt.edu.