SGB wants relief from finals madness

Amidst the hunt for a new board member to replace Joshua Carl, who has been absent without… Amidst the hunt for a new board member to replace Joshua Carl, who has been absent without leave from the Student Government Board since late July, the rest of the SGB proposed a resolution last night to help students overloaded with finals.

The resolution, which will be voted on at next week’s meeting, calls for the University to provide a form that students with three or more final examinations in a 24-hour period can use to request that one of them be rescheduled.

“The reason I am concerned is because we are competing nationally against our counterparts at various institutions around the country,” president Shady Henien said. “And not having a policy in place to limit the number of finals given in one day, as it is at other universities, may place some of us at a disadvantage.”

If the University decides to approve a student’s request to reschedule an exam, permission would be given to reschedule any conflicting finals to a more convenient time.

“We are not asking the faculty to be placed in any difficult situations, all we are asking is that there be a policy or method that a student may use to ask for the rearrangement of their final examination,” Henien said.

In addition to aiding the student body’s finals frustrations, SGB addressed recent concerns regarding Pitt’s new meal plan system.

Public Relations chair Perry Servedio called for a way to use Market Central passes elsewhere around Pitt, particularly on upper campus.

“A lot of people talked to me today. They wish they can use [their meal plans] on the hill – they feel left out,” Servedio said during the meeting’s open floor period.

“The whole reason [the meal plan system] was changed was because a lot of students really didn’t like blocks,” board member Janeace Slifka said. “They didn’t like that whole system, they wanted the freedom of ‘I just want money to swipe my card and get the food I want.'”

Slifka said that she would bring the issue to an upcoming food committee meeting Friday night and encouraged students with other food-related issues to attend.

SGB plans to select a replacement for missing board member Joshua Carl, who still cannot be reached for comment, sometime next week.

Applications for the ninth seat on the board, which five people have applied for thus far, are due on Sept. 25.