Blasi enjoys SGB, dislikes denying funding and being judged

Joining current Student Government Board President Brian Kelly’s “Driven” campaign last fall… Joining current Student Government Board President Brian Kelly’s “Driven” campaign last fall was among Liz Blasi’s best decisions, in her opinion.

After meeting through Pathfinders and becoming friends with Kelly, who was a board member at the time, Blasi expressed interest in getting involved with SGB, and was invited to join his ticket.

Despite having no SGB experience before Election Day, Blasi came up as the highest vote-getter on the board when the ballots were counted.

During her campaign, Blasi said she would work toward creating a more student-friendly William Pitt Union, as well as more 24-hour study and hangout areas for students on campus.

“It’s a lot more difficult than you think,” she said of how her campaign promises are coming along.

A lot of money has already been spent renovating the Union this year, Blasi said. The board might make a mission of renovating the game room in the Union basement, but getting work done on this has been difficult because Vice Provost for Undergraduate Studies and Dean of Students Jack Daniel has been out of the office for much of the summer, she added.

In the spring, Daniel and other leaders in the Student Life office recognized the need for more student-aimed study areas. As a result, around final exam time, the Union was kept open later, and free food and drinks were provided to students hitting the books late on campus.

And though she would have liked to play a larger role in the planning and helping out with the events, Blasi said that Daniel told her to just focus on her own finals instead.

In the past, some boards have had strained relationships with the administration — and with Daniel, in particular — but Blasi considers this board’s working relationship with Daniel a successful one. She thinks Daniel is a “very good person” who truly has “students’ interest in mind.”

Blasi is currently working with SGB adviser Joyce Giangarlo to get a movie station put onto Pitt’s television system. This program would provide all televisions in the residence halls and elsewhere on campus, such as the TV in Schenley Cafe, with a free movie channel. As it stands, students have to pay extra to get cable stations like HBO in their rooms. According to Blasi, the program would cost about $11,000. She hopes that, with the increased funds coming from the student activities fee, the program will be successful.

Blasi is also working with Kelly to look into bringing the online downloading program Ruckus Network to Pitt’s campus. The program would help students avoid getting fines for downloading movies and music illegally, she said. Before making any decisions about it, though, the costs of bringing it to Pitt and the administration’s opinions on the program must be addressed and considered.

One of the most difficult situations Blasi said she must face, as a board member, is enduring the personal judgments of people who don’t know her. To explain, she recalled a closed-door SGB meeting held in the midst of the United States Student Association controversy last spring. During the private meeting, the board approved the decision to remove USSA from SGB’s budget and, at the following public meeting, she and the board had to deal with many complaints from students and former board members.

The Mount Lebanon native said she then had to deal with people — including close friends — being upset by her decision.

Having to deny funding for programming, which she described as another difficult situation, might occur less often this semester, thanks to what she called one of the board’s great successes: the increased student activites fee.

Blasi expects the board to work this fall toward figuring out the best process for distributing the funds. Since most groups already have their yearly budgets set up, the board now has the challenge of figuring out how to disperse all the extra money throughout the semester. Whatever the final solution, she predicted that students will be happier with the new, increased amount of money available.

“I’m excited about that,” she said.

Blasi is still unsure about her future with SGB, though she is certain that she would like to continue being involved, in some way. If the past few years of elections predict the future, Blasi, the current business manager, will be elected the next SGB president.

But she said she was unsure what her future holds.

“Things are still up in the air,” she said. If elected, however, she said she would happily serve again, whether as a board member or president.

“I’ve loved the last year,” she said.

Although Blasi is a senior communications major, she is not planning on graduating in the spring.