Student Government Board president Shady Henien opened last night’s board meeting by… Student Government Board president Shady Henien opened last night’s board meeting by addressing the controversial efforts to organize the decoration of the 10 fiberglass panther statues it purchased over the summer.

“I will be working with our traditions committee and our adviser this Friday to finalize a portion of the plans for these panther statues,” Henien said.

SGB spent about $60,000 on 10 fiberglass panther statues, which will be decorated by 10 randomly selected student organizations as part of a new tradition at Pitt. Board members against the project cited both a lack of student feedback and minimal plans for what to do with the statues once decorated as reasons for their disagreement with the project.

“It’s too late now, we already paid for it,” Henien said, when asked about the possibility of gauging student feedback through an online poll.

SGB plans to conduct online questionnaires regarding the USA Today Readership Program, the recently passed resolution regarding final examinations and a potential fall break. The online polls will occur simultaneously with the Nov. 8 SGB elections.

Because Henien hopes that the statues will become a homecoming tradition, he said that waiting until this November to conduct a student vote would have resulted in waiting until next year’s homecoming to begin the project, if approved by students.

Despite attempts to “rush” the project, as board member Bianca Gresco previously said, the statues did not arrive in time for this year’s homecoming festivities. In addition to disliking the original statue design, Henien said the inactivity of some board members added one month to this delay.

“We wanted to do it for this homecoming,” Henien said, “but it fell through.”

Henien projects that the statues will arrive in time to coincide with this year’s Light Up Night and will begin as a homecoming tradition next year.

Henien emphasized that all of the money for the statues came from unspent money from last year’s activities fund. Student groups returned about $200,000 in over-budgeted money back to the board at the end of last year.

“I hope that the student body will understand that we spent only a fraction of the surplus which theoretically we shouldn’t have to begin with this past summer,” Henien said.

SGB to amend non-discrimination policy

SGB proposed a resolution last night calling to change the University’s non-discrimination policy to include people with any “actual or perceived gender identity or expression” to be protected under the policy.

The board tabled the amendment – a common custom with resolutions – and it will vote next week to make the action official.