SGB well covered, in several ways, as it prepares for Diversity Week

Who’s your sugar daddy?

Well, at least for student organizations, the Student Government… Who’s your sugar daddy?

Well, at least for student organizations, the Student Government Board is.

Four weeks ago, a student organization representative said she comes to the SGB meetings only to ask for money.

Last night, SGB President Brian Kelly was surprised by the lack of requests for more dinero.

“I’m kind of confused as to why so many people were here this week and so little money was asked for,” he said. “Is this for a class project or something?”

“It’s for journalism class,” someone from the back said, eliciting laughter from the SGB members and the crowd attending the meeting. After the board asked how many people were there for class, about half of the 20 attendees’ hands shot up.

During the allocations phase of the meeting, only one student group spoke. After SGB approved $370 and denied $385 for the College Democrats, a rep asked, “What was the problem?”

Kelly explained that SGB could grant no more than $600, or the cost of one person, to send a non-governance group representative to a conference. The group representative nodded in understanding and sat back down without another word.

In fact, the only other group to voice a request for money was SGB itself. After the SGB allocations committee initially recommended that $8,900 for SGB be denied, board member Monica Higgins motioned that $4,560 be approved. The $8,900 was for 2,000 Diversity Week T-shirts, which would be handed out to students, but SGB decided that 1,000 T-shirts would be sufficient and thus scaled back the amount of money requested. The motion was seconded and approved.

The board also made decisions about next year’s budgets for the Pitt Program Council and WPTS-FM.

“I’m confident that they will be pleased with our decisions,” Kelly said.

PPC was granted $740,000 and WPTS was allotted $154,000 for the year.

“Anyone from those groups who would wish to speak, even if it’s good?” Kelly asked.

“Thank you, SGB,” board member Dilinus Harris whispered in suggestion.

“Thanks,” someone from the crowd parroted.

In other news,

Jennifer Anukem has been working on her “aggressive panhandling campaign,” and she hopes to educate everyone on how to deal with this issue. Her intern has also been writing thank-you cards to those who attended the Red Carpet Event, which was held to recognize leaders of Pitt student organizations.

Bigelow Bash will be held this weekend, starting Saturday at noon. “It would be great if everyone would come for Bigelow Bash, even if it’s raining,” SGB member Rebekah Bambling said.

The Greeks will join together Friday for Greek Sing, the annual charity-supporting talent show.

A number of activities will be held next week for Diversity Week, including a multi-cultural food fair next Thursday, in which free food will be available to all students.

And Pitt Project Oakland, an annual clean-up-Oakland event, will be held next Saturday. Harris urged people to join, citing free breakfast, lunch and T-shirts as reasons to enlist in the event.