SGB attempts to increase participation

The new Student Government Board, in its first official meeting of the new year, made procedural… The new Student Government Board, in its first official meeting of the new year, made procedural changes to increase student participation and dialogue at its weekly meetings. President Kevin Morrison said one of the board’s main focuses was ‘to revise the way we operate internally’ and to benefit students by ‘looking at the ways we conduct meetings to encourage more audience participation.’ SGB now explains the rationale of its allocation decisions. Board member Lance Bonner, on behalf of the board, gave specific reasons why the board approved or denied funding based on each student organization’s purpose and use of the money. In the past, some students groups have complained about the board’s allocation decisions. Open floor discussions have been revised, too. Now audience members can address the board and specific board members for 10 minutes without waiting for the board’s permission. Morrison said the new open discussion format was designed to ‘give the audience a chance to actually interact with board members.’ ‘We really want to hear your ideas,’ said Morrison. ‘We thought this would be a great way to increase dialogue and hear ideas and concerns from you all.’ SGB set up an e-mail account to contact student groups and individuals on campus. The address is sgb.boardmembers@gmail.com. Board member Alexa Jennings said the e-mail account would help SGB interact more with students. ‘Expect to hear from us,’ said Jennings. ‘And we want to hear from you, too.’ Morrison also said he hopes to establish a code of conduct within the next few weeks. ‘I want to make sure we set up a code of conduct to help dictate how members should operate,’ said Morrison. The board introduced the Pitt Paperless Initiative, a program meant to reduce the amount of paper Pitt uses on everything from applications to student group advertising to ticket sales. All nine members are working on projects that hope to decrease paper usage on campus. Board member Andrew Freeman said the program has three main focuses, each of which works to ‘maximize student operations.’ ‘Those points are better utilization of the paperless processes we already have, the use of better technologies to reduce our paper waste and to increase University awareness about the paperless options we have,’ said Freeman. ‘But we really want to choose options for this initiative that are most beneficial to the students we serve.’ Morrison also commented on the initiative. ‘I think it’s very noble that we’re all working towards one cause with this initiative,’ he said. ‘But we want to make sure that we’re not focusing on our own specific ideas and [instead] focusing on what will help students now, not 10 years from now.’ ‘Any problems you see, any issue you have, is our priority,’ he added. SGB Notes ‘mdash; The board approved Women’s Fast Pitch Softball’s $1,687.50 request for money for indoor practice facilities. ‘mdash; The board approved Steel City Bhangra’s request for $635.64. The group hopes to go to a competition in Washington, D.C. ‘mdash; The board approved Muslim Student Association’s request for $1,400.35, which it will put toward its first event of the new year. ‘mdash; Board member Lance Bonner was named president pro tempore. ‘mdash; Board member Max Greenwald was named business manager.