SGB plans campus immigration enforcement rapid response training 

Student Government Board announced plans for a rapid response training related to the presence of federal agents on campus at its weekly meeting Tuesday night at Nordy’s Place. 

Board member Kylie Baker said the training, which will teach students how to serve as legal observers in case of a presence of federal agents on campus, will take place on April 8 in the Cathedral of Learning.

“This will be an event where students can finally sign up to be legal observers and learn how to participate in protecting their community safely,” Baker said.

Baker said more information about the training will be released later on SGB’s social media.

Ella O’Rourke, Sexual Awareness and Prevention chair, promoted Sex-Ed Week and encouraged student participation. O’Rourke said there will be a panel featuring PAAR and Prevention on March 25, a Trivia Toys Night on March 26, and a SECCS Consent Carnival featuring SGB’s Disability Resources Committee on March 27. 

“If you come to more sex-ed events this week, you can win wonderful prizes,” O’Rourke said.  “There will be free shirts, free food, free sexual wellness products — anything you could possibly need.”

Disability Resource Services liason Lauren Lenhard added that “over $2,000 worth of sex toys” will be given out throughout the week. Lenhard also announced a collaborative Women’s Wellness event with the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion committee on March 30 from 6-8 p.m. in room 540 in the WPU. 

O’Rourke also announced a Denim Day event, planned for mid- to late April, hosted by SGB’s Support, Advocacy and Prevention committee. Denim Day began after a 1999 Italian Supreme Court case acquitted a person accused of rape because the victim was wearing tight jeans. The court reasoned that she would have had to help the perpetrator remove them and thus consented. After this, the women in the Italian Parliament wore jeans to work in solidarity.

Board member Andrew Elliott discussed upcoming revisions to SGB’s governing code. According to Elliott, the code used to be around 150 pages but was recently condensed to “around 80.” 

“Our SGB governing documents were pretty much rewritten in their entirety two years ago by President Ryan Young,” Elliott said. 

Elliott said the board made limited changes last year because of the significant changes made two years ago, and explained that the code is now due for updates. 

“Last year we did very minimal edits because we wanted more time to see the effects of those changes,” Elliott said. “One thing we believe very strongly is that this should be a living document. Our needs and the needs of students change dramatically over the years.”

Elliott said the board anticipates making significant updates this year. 

“We do expect pretty large changes,” Elliott said. “We are going to have at least one brand new section. That is going to be a huge undertaking for us.”  

Vice President Olivia Budike said the board is discussing how to structure the revisions. 

“We are trying to figure out which rules we want to write out, and which rules we want to leave up for interpretation for future members of SGB,” Budike said.

SGB also announced that applications for cabinet, constitutional chairs, and constitutional members are now open until March 30 and applications for allocations committee members are open until April 8. 

Allocations: 

Ethics Bowl at Pitt requested $2,906.94 for a competition. The board amended and approved this request to $2,820.40. 

Pickleball Club at Pitt requested $3,110.40 for a competition. The board amended and approved this request to $3,000.00. 

Institute of Industrial and System Engineers requested $2,060.81 for a conference. The board approved this request in full. 

This article was updated on April 6 to correct application due dates and O’Rourke and Lenhard’s respective titles. The Pitt News regrets this error and remains committed to the most accurate reporting possible.