Student Life offers alcohol alternative grants to groups

Students looking for something to do on a Thursday, Friday or Saturday night that does not… Students looking for something to do on a Thursday, Friday or Saturday night that does not involve alcohol can now receive up to $1,000 from Pitt for programming.

According to Student Government Board member Liz Culliton, Pitt’s Task Force on Alcohol Issues Alternatives is giving groups or members within groups a total of $15,000 this semester through the Office of Student Life and the Alternatives Committee.

The first round of applications were due Feb. 14, but the task force will continue to accept applications throughout the semester, she said. Since this is the first time that Pitt is granting this money, the task force does not have criteria set for applications except that the programming must occur between 8 p.m. and 2 a.m., she added.

According to the application, “Funded activities must be alcohol free – defined as an event in which no alcohol is served or available – and must be open to all students.”

More than 10 student organizations including Black Action Society, the Creation Station, Student Volunteer Outreach and several Greek organizations submitted applications by Friday.

Throughout the school year, groups can ask the SGB for funding. The allocations committee, however, now only has $10,000 for the rest of the semester.

Alyssa Truszkowski of the Creation Station said the station applied for money to celebrate its one-year anniversary. The station’s members want to have a party to show their best work throughout the year, possibly have a band play and an MC battle, she said.

“We have asked the Student Government Board for money before, but we were going to try and fund this event ourselves [until we heard about this grant],” she said.

Chase Patterson, president of the African American Coalition, said his group applied for money to host a dinner in March. They will follow the dinner with a movie dealing with African American women’s struggles because March is Women’s History Month, he added.

Next year his group may also run a PlayStation NFL tournament for about a month using funding from this task force. The money from the grant will go toward renting the PlayStations and food, he said.

According to a survey done in spring of 2000, 58 percent of Pitt students thought that at least one of their friends had either a drinking or drug problem.

A group was formed following this survey to address the problem and to design ways to prevent alcohol abuse, decrease high-risk drinking behaviors and to promote alcohol-free opportunities for students, according to the application.

The money granted does not have to be used exclusively by a student group, but students wanting money for programming must go through a group to apply, Culliton said.

For example, if students from two floors in a dorm building wanted to compete against each other in an X-Box competition then they could use the Resident Student Association as their group, she said.

The task force will distribute a maximum of $1,000 per event and 30 grants each year, according to the application.

Programming suggestions from the task force included organizing late night intramural teams, having a comedy night and a Moctober Fest celebration.