Student Meet SGB candidates

Last-minute room changes got Monday night’s “Meet the Candidates” off to a late start,… Last-minute room changes got Monday night’s “Meet the Candidates” off to a late start, but that didn’t stop ambitious ideas from filling the William Pitt Union’s Ballroom.

The event, hosted by Student Government Board elections chair Jeff Alex, was many students’ first introduction to those running for elected student office this year. The candidates were each given a few minutes to express why they were running and what they planned to do, followed by a question-and-answer session with the audience of about 40 people.

The evening began with the three candidates for SGB president, all of whom are current board members:

Pat Creighton spoke about his plans to restructure SGB as he walked with the microphone in front of the podium.

“This year has been a learning experience,” he said, adding that SGB needed to include more students and increase its diversity of viewpoints.

“People are groomed from the time they get to the University,” he said, calling the notion that one needs vast SGB experience to be elected “hogwash.”

Creighton spoke about reworking allocations committee, saying, “I want to see where the money goes before we add more to the pot.”

He also stressed a need to increase communication with important student organizations, saying that the current liaison system does not work.

Creighton also said that he didn’t feel, even in the shortened term from May through December, that the entire board needed to be at Pitt the entire summer, or that the Pitt system of governance groups worked well because it was so arbitrary which groups had governance status.

Liz Culliton said she felt that SGB’s biggest weakness was “an inability to bring everyone together,” and that her experience would enable her to fix that.

“I know the office inside and out,” she said. “I’ve seen the way it works from both sides.”

She spoke about “opening the doors to SGB” and including more groups and interested people in the decision-making process.

“I plan to use the summer to actually get things done,” she said, adding that the extra time in a term lasting only eight months would be necessary for any achievement.

With an early retreat during the summer, Culliton said, she would pick three or four “short-term, attainable goals” from the list of the board members’ concerns and then set up task forces with SGB students and outsiders to get those goals accomplished.

She also stressed the 14 semesters of SGB experience that she and her slatemates could bring to the board.

Andrea DeChellis stressed her history with diversity as a student activist, and focused largely on problems with Pitt administration.

“Student Government Board must defend students’ interests,” she said, highlighting lack of institutional support for student programs and needs and sharply criticizing recent boards for “not being accountable to anyone.”

She mentioned problems with staff resources, and suggested hiring SGB’s own independent organizer to help them with programs and goals, even those with which Pitt might not agree. Because of the organizer’s direct link to students and not administration, she said, the position would not be compromised or placed in jeopardy if students wanted to fight the administration for anything.

DeChellis also focused on training during the summer, cited her “passionate care” for students’ rights and addressed the problems in SGB allocations as one not of allocations, but of administration.

After the presidential candidates spoke, all of the board candidates were given a chance to represent themselves:

Charis Jones, running with Andrea DeChellis and Todd Brandon Morris on the ACT NOW slate (an acronym for “Andrea, Charis and Todd”), stressed her activism and experience affecting SGB from the outside.

“I spent every Wednesday night at 9 o’clock last semester trying to figure out what was going on in student government,” she said.

She also spoke about being “a vessel of knowledge” for the student body to communicate with.

Morris spoke about his experiences on the United States Student Association lobbying trip to Washington, D.C., and emphasized work with getting a diverse group of people involved.

“I realize how great it is that all three presidential candidates have a priority on diversity,” he said, but added that, in general, “we do not have a diverse campus of student leaders.”

Matt Carmody, the current community relations chair for SGB, had ideas about how to increase Pitt students’ awareness with regard to housing. He suggested adding liaisons for housing resources, Residence Life and the Oakland Community Council.

He also suggested increasing support for club sports, which he said are horribly underfunded, and strengthening the SGB-student connection.

Jesse Horstmann and Lauren Williams emphasized how important it was for elected officials to be responsive to students.

They focused on creating public office hours for SGB members and hosting roundtables and forums on specific problems.

“We feel that going to students is the answer,” Horstmann said, citing his “drive and determination” as a quality that would lead him to accomplish his goals.

Williams spoke about changing SGB’s face from one that is “hard and unapproachable” to one that is “warmer and friendlier,” citing her experience in Black Action Society, Freedom Honors Society and Pitt Pathfinders as assets to working with other people.

“Not everybody is willing to stand up in front of your peers and say ‘I will represent you,'” she said.

Stephanie Hadgkiss spoke quickly and with confidence about the experience that she, Culliton and Brian Kelly, her “Envision” slatemates, could use as a tool if elected.

Starting with a list of things she would not do – make empty promises and cite problems with the system – Hadgkiss instead said her “experience and ability” would be necessary if unforeseen problems arose.

“I believe that we should focus 10 percent on a problem and 90 percent on a solution,” she said.

Hadgkiss’ used her platform idea – of a University bus system “ticker” on Bigelow Boulevard that would display how long until the next bus arrived – and all of the steps she had taken toward it, to illustrate her expertise in dealing with problem-solving.

Kelly used his two years on Resident Student Association, the most recent as president, to show his leadership ability.

He cited how, as a freshman president of Tower B, he had campaigned and successfully argued for lights in the showers there.

Two years on allocations committee and success in registering more than half of the students counted in last fall’s voter registration drive were other examples of how Kelly said he worked to make changes that “affect every student’s everyday life.”

James Martini and Julie Jaruszewicz joined Creighton on the “Students Giving Back” slate, although they came from opposite angles.

Martini cited his extensive experience, including two years on allocations, as qualification. He referred to his accomplishments on an allocations subcommittee, producing a pamphlet for student organizations.

He also cited his updating of the allocations committee Web site and said he would try to have every SGB committee Web site up and running by the end of next term if elected.

Jaruszewicz, on the other hand, brought up her lack of experience on SGB as a qualification.

Actively a member of several student groups, Jaruszewicz proposed efforts to open up SGB-student relations, saying that her point of view from outside the system could help her empathize with others.

She also spoke about campus safety, and suggested restarting the student escort service, which was abandoned about five years ago because of lack of use.

Scott Morley, John Martin and Peter Stopp comprised the “Results Now” slate, running on major reforms of SGB and its functioning.

Morley spoke mostly about the allocations committee and its tendency to run out of money after five months.

“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that that’s not good,” he said.

He said he would use the summer and remaining months of the abbreviated term to form an entirely new allocations committee, throwing out the old precedents and policies almost entirely.

Martin addressed the problem of communication on Pitt’s campus, which he called “fractured.”

“There’s a lot of us, a lot of them, a lot of the other guy,” he said.

He suggested using service projects, such as the Pittsburgh Project and the Pitt-WVU blood drive, to bring the campus together.

Martin also suggested using athletics to bring the campus together, and commended organizations such as the Oakland Zoo for increasing Pitt spirit and unity.

Stopp’s main platform was “increasing teamwork,” and he pledged to decrease the amount of infighting in SGB if elected with his slatemates.

He said the focus on specific issues, like allocations and community building, could help decrease bickering. He also said that there would be more communication with the student body, including a complaints page he intended to add to the SGB Web site.

Amanda Brabson and Alissa Krutoff, running on the “Progress” slate, each gave two specific goals they hoped to accomplish if elected.

Brabson, who said she could bring “a refreshing new perspective” to SGB, wanted to promote awareness of the PAT UV Loop bus, which she said could make Pitt students safer if used well.

She also brought up the issue of Pitt parking in lots with no attendants, suggesting there be a call button to indicate that a shuttle should stop there on its next run.

Krutoff, the current president of Panhellenic Association, said student involvement in the Student Organization Resource Center was absolutely necessary.

“If you use SORC, you know it’s not as efficient as it should be,” she said.

She also said she planned to implement Response Alcohol Management Program training for students, saying that employers – who are now eligible to get insurance breaks if more than 50 percent of their employees are RAMP certified – will be more likely to hire Pitt students who have gone through it.

“It can’t hurt to have any student be more responsible with anything,” she said, “especially alcohol.”

Kevin Kotar used the slogan “Bridging the Gap” to describe his campaign, which focused on technology to improve students’ experiences.

“It’s 2003 and we still register on carbon paper,” he said.

He suggested using the current advising system for a period of a few weeks, and then having a day when all students could register online at the same time.

He also suggested making the allocations committee Web site “more welcoming,” so that more student organizations could use it effectively.