Student Government Board members perform random acts of kindness

Christmas might not be here yet, but the Grinch made an appearance at Thursday night’s Student… Christmas might not be here yet, but the Grinch made an appearance at Thursday night’s Student Government Board meeting.

Just when the weekly student activities fee allocation requests seemed to be going smoothly for the first time in weeks, the board came across a request from Random Acts of Kindness, a student organization designed to make life at Pitt a bit more pleasant through such random acts as giving candy to students during finals time.

When the first of two RAK requests came to the board for a vote, board member Joe Pasqualichio proposed that the board do something unusual.

“I think we should do a random act of kindness,” he said to his fellow boardmates before proposing that the board not only approve the $507.20 that RAK requested, but also add a whole dollar to it.

But just as most of the board members seemed to agree, Allocations Committee Chair Josh Taylor told board member Lauren Evette Williams that they couldn’t approve more than a group requested.

“Let’s do it and see what happens,” President Brian Kelly said in response.

The final formal suggestion made was to give the group a total of $510 — a whole $2.80 more than RAK asked for.

“Wow,” board member Charis Jones said.

And just when it seemed that all was going well, board member Matt Hutchinson raised his hand to speak. He said he couldn’t approve the funding because some of the money the group requested would not help Pitt students — for example, money to buy supplies for making peanut butter-and-jelly sandwiches, which would be given out to the homeless.

Describing himself as the Grinch and telling the large audience that he’d be getting coal for Christmas, Hutchinson added that the student activities fee shouldn’t be spent on programming that doesn’t benefit students.

“That’s fair,” Jones responded.

But Hutchinson’s statement didn’t change his fellow board members minds, as six voted for the $510, Hutchinson voted against it, and board member Amit Kotz abstained from the vote.

Williams later noted that Pasqualichio’s new attitude toward allocations might reflect the upcoming SGB election. She said that earlier in their terms, Pasqualichio carried a calculator with him to go over the money allocated.

“He was Mr. Money Bags,” she said.

Kotz later said in the meeting that she couldn’t vote to approve the additional funding.

“I’m not against Random Acts of Kindness,” she said. “I’m an allocations girl at heart.”

Kotz served on the Allocations Committee in the past, and, for that reason, wouldn’t go against the rules.

After SGB approves funding, Jeff Donovan, a Pitt administrator, goes over the paperwork and helps distribute the money. At the end of the meeting, Kelly said Donovan might be a bit surprised when he sees this approval.

“You can just let him know to call me if he has any problems,” Kelly said to RAK’s co-presidents.

Board member — and, as he made clear at the meeting to everyone in the room, presidential candidate — Todd Brandon Morris commended Hutchinson’s decision not to follow the group.

“It’s not easy going against the vote,” Morris said, adding that Hutchinson had gained points in Morris’s original “Board Member of the Year” award.

Moments later, Hutchinson updated his boardmates on their ongoing rankings in his own “Board Member of the Year” award, something he decided to create several weeks ago.

This week, he ranked the board members on criteria including the number and content of memos that each person distributed throughout the week, and whether each person was running for office again or not. He gave points to each person running again because it creates more fun in the office, he said.

He added that if Blasi and Paqualichio, who will be running as slatemates again this year, had used the slate title “Driven Refueled,” they would have gotten extra points. They ended up going back to their slate name of last year, “Driven.”

Before releasing the results of his rankings this week, Hutchinson warned the board, “It’s tight.”

And in a dramatic countdown, Hutchinson named the top five spots: Kelly, Pasqualichio, Salvatore, Blasi and Morris.

“The not running really hurt you guys,” he told those on the board who will not seek re-election later this month.

And while giving her board report, Kotz argued that Hutchinson should reward her with points because they ran on the same slate last year.