Campus Briefs (9/11/06)

Students given the chance to meet SGB members

Katelyn Polantz

For the Pitt News… Students given the chance to meet SGB members

Katelyn Polantz

For the Pitt News

Last Friday, the Schenley Quadrangle was transformed into a festival site, complete with free food, giant blow-up attractions and loud music.

Was this the final leg of the “Arrival Survival” celebration or a promotion for Greek Week?

Actually, on Friday afternoon Student Government Board hosted its annual program, “Meet the Board.”

This SGB event showcased the many committees comprising the organization at tables set up in the Quad. Members of SGB’s Freshman Affairs Committee handed out pizza, cotton candy and popcorn at their table situated next to a big, bouncy bungee runway.

“We had a really good turnout today, and a bunch of organizations helped us out,” Alexis Chidi, the vice chair of Freshman Affairs, said about the afternoon. “We’re really pleased.”

Dozens of students waited in lines for the free food, and they also had the opportunity to learn about the various aspects of SGB.

Joe Leinbach, SGB’s business manager, said, “The purpose of Meet the Board is to give kids who don’t know about SGB the opportunity to learn more and to get involved.”

The Governmental Relations Committee and even Leinbach put together other tables. Campus Dining Services also made an appearance, giving away more free food, and the campus radio station WPTS added some beat to the air with their live broadcast.

Sophomore Sherry Orinko commented on the event.

“It’s super fun to be here, and I love the free food,” she said.

Fraternity charity work gets the ball rolling

Sarah Kaufman

Contributing Editor

Zeta Beta Tau raised more than $800 for University of Pittsburgh Medical Center cancer research last week with its new project “Get on the Ball,” and it will continue to raise money until this Thursday.

The fraternity brothers rolled a 5-foot inflated ball covered with company advertisements around campus.

Originally, the idea was that the more students who signed the ball, the more money the companies would donate to charity.

However, ZBT philanthropic chair Dan Kheloussi found that the 12 Pittsburgh companies that participated would rather pay $25, $50 or $100 up front.

Kheloussi got the idea from ZBT presidents at other universities’ chapters.

“I thought, why do most fundraisers not work?” he said. “And it’s because college kids don’t have money.”

But if college students were simply required to sign the ball, Kheloussi added, then the fundraising project would be successful.

“Along with doing something really positive and giving back, it’s also been great to see how many other kids on campus care,” Kheloussi said. “People get out their wallets and donate big bills. It’s really, really amazing to see how people care like that.”

The fraternity received more than $300 in donations — including $20 and a signature from Chancellor Nordenberg — when they rolled the ball around campus, in addition to the original $525 company donations.

ZBT president Cody Harding said Kheloussi’s effort was what made for such a positive outcome.

“There’s a lot of unseen challenges and bureaucracies you have to overcome when working with businesses, but I give [Kheloussi] a lot of credit because he was very much driven to make it happen,” Harding said.

And not to use too much of a pun, Harding added, “he really picked up the ball when nobody else wanted to do it.”

Interfraternity Council president Dan Morrison agreed, and said Kheloussi did 90 percent of the work.

“Dan put all of his time into it,” Morrison said. “He went to over 60 businesses to get advertisements, he ordered the ball. Dan pretty much took care of the project.”

ZBT plans to make the ball project an annual fundraising event.

The brothers also have tentative plans to take the ball to a Steelers game this season to get even more signatures.

“It’s just been very successful, we’re having a great time,” Morrison said. “Thanks everyone for their support. It’s been a blast.”