SGB makes waves

It was a beautiful day to go dunk a Student Government Board member on Sunday — and an even… It was a beautiful day to go dunk a Student Government Board member on Sunday — and an even more beautiful day for a SGB member to pick up young ladies.

Several of the board members spent time in a pool of water yesterday afternoon, at the hands of their constituents, as part of SGB’s Freshmen Affairs Committee’s “Meet the Board” event.

After about a half-hour in the dunking tank, a shirtless board member Matt Hutchinson finally got dunked by a female student. And as soon as Hutchinson popped up from the water, several people around the tank made comments regarding a promise he made to go out with the first girl who dunked him.

Unfortunately, she was walking away even as everyone reminded Hutchinson of his promise.

“Wait, wait,” Hutchinson called after her. “I didn’t get her number.”

Just a few minutes later, President Brian Kelly called out to a few other young women as they walked through the Schenley Quadrangle. They continued to walk toward the Litchfield Towers, and Kelly made a final effort to bring them to the tank by shouting, “He’s single!”

But fellow board member Joe Pasqualichio wasn’t so eager to have the ladies looking at him. Before going into the tank, he changed out of his orange button-up shirt into a blue shirt.

“You’re wearing that?” yelled board member Liz Blasi, who had gone in the tank earlier in the afternoon.

“Look; I don’t want to attract a mob of girls,” Pasqualichio responded.

In the past, SGB has sponsored more formal events for students to learn about their boards. But this year, the Freshmen Affairs Committee decided to make the event more fun, in hopes that it would encourage more people to come out and learn about SGB and its functions. According to Committee Chair Jennifer Anukem, SGB hosted a freshmen formal four years ago, but it hasn’t hosted any big events since then.

“It’s a fun event,” Anuken added. “It’s a much better approach [than was used in the past].”

She described the event as a huge success. The committee bought enough food for about 500 people, but by 2 p.m., just two hours after the five-hour event began, they were already running out of rations, Anuken said.

At each of the Quad stations, which included the dunk tank, a popcorn stand and a jewelry-making stand, students could learn about a different function or purpose of SGB. At board member Charis Jones’ popcorn stand, students learned about what SGB funds.

According to Kelly, by having an event out in the Quad, SGB could reach students who might not normally go up to the board’s office, giving such students the opportunity to learn about SGB and its functions on campus.

Kelly added that, by letting students try to dunk their board members, the students would see that board members are on the same level as all students. Hopefully, he added, students could then become more comfortable talking to board members when on campus.

Board member Amit Kotz echoed Kelly’s views and added, “I think it’s nice for people to see us out here.”

And though most of the board members volunteered to go in the dunk tank, Kelly wasn’t quite given the opportunity to say no.

That does not necessarily mean he would not have volunteered himself, but the advertisement for the event encouraged students to come out and dunk their president — so he had no choice in the matter.

And though the board members who went in the tank early in the day had to stay for hour-long periods, Kelly said that they would be changing it to half-hour turns before he got in.

Freshman Jonathan Zolomij said that getting involved with the committee early has allowed him to meet people with similar interests.

“It helped a lot with the transition,” he said.

The Freshmen Affairs Committee meets on Tuesdays at 8 p.m.