Letter to the Editor, 4/14

By Pitt News Staff

To the Editor,

In the April 8 article, ‘Rainbow Alliance and SGB clash over funding,’ The… To the Editor,

In the April 8 article, ‘Rainbow Alliance and SGB clash over funding,’ The Pitt News neglected entirely the presence of other student leaders and organization representatives at Tuesday night’s Student Government Board meeting and, furthermore, misrepresented the concerns voiced that evening.

It should be made apparent that the Rainbow Alliance is not the only student organization voicing concerns about the SGB allocations process. Several student organizations have spoken out about the opacity of this process. We encouraged our general body members to attend Tuesday’s meeting — as did the leaders of numerous other student groups — in order to show their dissatisfaction with the process by which the allocations committee and SGB have made their decisions, not necessarily their dissatisfaction with the decisions themselves.

As leaders of student organizations required to submit extensive written budget reports, which detail to the penny our future expenditures and rationale for requesting funding, we believe it is the duty of SGB and its allocations committee to provide legitimate, documented rationalizations for denying and deferring any funding requested by student organizations.

We would like to encourage the entire student community of the University of Pittsburgh to contact SGB regarding the allocations process, as well as the leaders of their student organizations, in order to further facilitate communication regarding allocations.

Elise Drobish

Rainbow Alliance Communications Assistant