Kelly: Order of 87 exists, I’m a part of it

On the eve of Brian Kelly’s second election as Student Government Board president, a group of… On the eve of Brian Kelly’s second election as Student Government Board president, a group of students lead by K. Chase Patterson filed charges against him and his slate for illegally using an SGB office paper cutter.

“The paper cutter incident was perhaps the most ridiculous thing I have ever been involved in at Pitt,” Kelly said last week.

The elections committee found Kelly and his slate mates guilty of breaking the elections code and thus docked votes as punishment.

“Chair [Andrew] Powers said we could use the paper cutter because it’s old and ridiculous,” Kelly said. “We weren’t shady about it. We were in the office openly using it.

“They just dragged it on forever and I was like, P.S. we won,” he added. “It was a learning experience. That’s how I positively look at all the bad stuff. I just learn from it.”

Kelly was elected to his second term as SGB president in November 2004, by 290 votes, in an election in which just more than 2,100 students voted.

Former board member Todd Brandon Morris ran a failed campaign for president against Kelly.

Looking back at his second term, Kelly remembered the first few weeks interacting with the new board.

“No one really knew how it was going to go at first,” Kelly said. “We were all really different people.”

Kelly said that taking a retreat together allowed the board to gel.

“We were all on cloud nine after the retreat and no one voted differently for the first few weeks,” Kelly said. “We all respected each other because we were student leaders and knew each other from campus.

“There was a lot of experience on that board, something that I think is different than the incoming board.”

One of the major changes Kelly’s board made this year was to move SGB elections online.

“We went back and forth about online voting and in the end it was Joe [Pasqualichio] and Liz [Blasi] who were adamantly against it and Zach [Ransom] who was kinda unsure,” Kelly said. “Basically, all the people who were running were nervous about it.”

“Over 5,000 students voted this year, a 100 percent increase from last year, so I can’t complain,” he added.

While Kelly was pleased with voter turnout, he admits that the results were bittersweet for him.

“Election night was hard for me. Joe Pasqualichio and I had a rough year. We were at opposite ends. Zach [Ransom] is my little in my fraternity and when I found out that he and Bekah [Bambling] didn’t win, it was hard. I couldn’t even look at them. That was not fun at all, and I wish I could have avoided it,” Kelly said.

Kelly also discussed SGB’s decision to attend the National Conference on Student Leadership at Catamaran Resort in San Diego. Jarrod Baker, Dilinus Harris, Bambling and Kelly attended the conference at the end of October. Only Bambling sought re-election this November.

“I can still, to this day, say that I didn’t lose sleep over that decision. SGB does not spend money ridiculously on itself,” Kelly said.

“The actual San Diego Conference was not that good,” he added.

Kelly said that the conference wasn’t as productive as he had hoped.

“It wasn’t a complete disaster, but the opportunities weren’t there,” he said. “It wasn’t worth it in the end. I wouldn’t do it again.”

One of the high points of Kelly’s final year at Pitt, he said, was his appointment to the selection committee that chose Kathy Humphrey as the new vice provost and dean of students.

“During the process she was my No. 1 choice. I really enjoyed my role in that committee, plus the food was amazing,” Kelly joked.

In Kelly’s years at Pitt, he’s had several run-ins with secret societies.

“My freshman year I found out that there was a secret society at Pitt called the Druids and I was on a mission to find them,” Kelly said. “I was told by people that I was going to be in because I have friends that are in it and they tell me everything about it.”

Kelly said that as time went on, he stopped hearing things about the Druids, so he assumed they had disbanded. Since he had heard that past SGB presidents had been Druids and he knew that he wanted to be president, he was concerned that he had not been tapped to join.

“After I won president, I really didn’t care anymore,” Kelly said.

He added that he thinks the role of a secret society on campus “is definitely positive if done correctly.”

“If you take student leaders, athletes and scholars and put them in a room and talk about what’s going on and how things could be better, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it,” Kelly said.

Though he previously denied the existence of the Order of 87 – a newly discovered secret society at Pitt – Kelly now confirms both its existence and his involvement.

“Yes, obviously there is an Order of 87. Do they do anything bad? No. Am I a part? Yes,” Kelly said.

Kelly maintains that the Order of 87 is a group devoted to positively influencing Pitt. However, he declined to outline any positive outcomes of the Order of 87.

“I just can’t say anything because it would be too incriminating,” he said.

Secret societies, office supplies, elections and trips to California: Brian Kelly has had a long and, at times, controversial career at Pitt.

“I would like to be remembered as someone who set goals and accomplished them,” he said. “I don’t have to be the coolest kid or in the best fraternity. I would like people to look back and when they think of Brian Kelly, they can think whatever about me they want on the side, but I want them to think at least he got stuff done. And I am confident that I did that.”