SGB awards self money to roll out red carpet for student leaders

Jennifer Anukem knows how to throw a party.

On Tuesday, Allocations awarded the SGB member… Jennifer Anukem knows how to throw a party.

On Tuesday, Allocations awarded the SGB member more than $9,000 for her Red Carpet Event, to be held on March 20. The event, intended to bring student leaders together to recognize involvement on campus, will host more than 700 leaders from Pitt student groups in the William Pitt Union Assembly Room.

The night has been separated into two times to accommodate the large number of guests.

Eight thousand dollars of the allocated funds will be used for the catered chicken dinner. The total cost for the dinner is $12,000, but the Provost’s office donated $5,400 to the event.

The rest of the money will be used for decorations, including the red carpet and candles for the dinner tables.

“It’s our way of recognizing all students,” Anukem said. Only eight members from each organization are invited to the event.

“I just think it will be an opportunity for members to be motivated to get more involved,” she added. She hopes that Pitt organization members who could not attend the event this year will become more active, so they can attend the event next year.

“We kind of hold ourselves to a standard of what would be politically correct to spend,” she said of the allocated funds.

Almost all of the money SGB requested was granted for the event.

The Indian Subcontinent Association also attended Tuesday’s meeting to ask for funding for its trip to Washington, D.C. The group was granted only $450 of the requested $1,300 for the trip.

On March 26, 17 members of the ISA will group together as the Steel City Bhangra to compete at the International Dance Competition at George Washington University, performing a traditional Indian folk dance accompanied by music.

The Steel City Bhangra was selected as one of nine other school dance groups to compete at the event after sending in a five-minute tryout video, according to group member Kiran Malhi.

An emergency meeting will be held this week to make the final decision for the total funding.