SGB full of ideas

The first half of Student Government board’s meeting Thursday night was filled with a lot of… The first half of Student Government board’s meeting Thursday night was filled with a lot of intention but little decision. Board members outlined personal progress made on projects.

Board member Joe Leinbach said that he was still talking with file-sharing companies such as Napster and Ruckus Network to implement a program for students on campus to legally share files. According to Leinbach, Ruckus has an agreement with four of the major record labels in the United States, as well as many independent labels. The service would be able to provide students with 1.5 million licensed tracks to share.

“We’d like to see something like this brought to Pitt,” Leinbach said. “We don’t want to see students get fined for illegal downloading.”

He also said that a file-sharing program would ultimately have to be approved by administration.

Board member Shady Henien said that he was continuing to investigate ways of creating a compilation of old tests for students to access in the SGB office. Henien noted that the University of Maryland has a similar program that he hopes to get information from.

Henien also hopes to start a freshman mentoring program using Scantron forms to match up freshmen with upperclassmen of similar interests.

Board member Will Powers is investigating a way to provide food to students living in Lothrop Hall.

“Freshman year I lived in Lothrop and I starved,” Powers said.

Powers has been in contact with Sodexho and housing regarding the attainment of food service in Lothrop Hall.

Board member Jennifer Anukem – the only member of the board who served last year, other than President Joe Pasqualichio – was not present at the meeting.

Editor’s note: The SGB meeting ran late last night. For full coverage of the meeting, read Monday’s Pitt News.