Amos Hall represented on RSA executive board

For the first time, there is a board member on the Resident Student Association Executive… For the first time, there is a board member on the Resident Student Association Executive Board who represents Pitt sororities.

Elise Ayah, a member of Kappa Delta, represents the residents of Amos Hall and the 10th floor of McCormick Hall.

On the executive board, presidents of the residence halls represent their buildings’ residents. Previously, the same individual represented both Amos and Holland halls’ residents, according to Michele Griffith, RSA Executive Board Adviser.

“Our main goal this year is to get different sororities to mingle together,” Ayah said. “We’re coordinating events that all of the sororities will, hopefully, get involved with.”

Last year, Amos residents petitioned the executive board to provide them with their own representative. The board approved the petition during the summer, Felix Yerace, a second-year board member said.

Having their own representation on the board means that Amos’ residents will be able to receive funding for activities, Yerace said.

“Each building is given a certain amount of money per student,” he said. Resident Advisers and others organizing events can petition for additional funds as necessary.

The sororities funded their own activities prior to this, Griffith said. She said she was unaware of any programs the entire building had taken part in.

Amos residents expressed no interest in joining the board prior to this year that Griffith could recall.

“Historically, they were not interested in RSA’s programming,” she said.

“In our constitution it stated that Holland and Amos were one,” Griffith said.

In order to provide Amos with its own representative, meetings during the summer had to take place to change the RSA constitution.

Amos and Holland were considered one entity because they have the same resident director, Griffith said.

Being the first president of Amos, Ayah referred to herself as being a “guinea pig.”

“If I don’t accomplish our goals then there might not be another Amos Hall representative next year,” she said.

In addition to trying to get the sororities to mingle with each other, Ayah said she needs to take care of maintenance issues, including trying to contact the right people to repair an elevator, she said.

Students in other buildings in the Schenley Quadrangle – Brackenridge, Bruce and McCormick halls – share one executive board member, and apartment-style housing, such as Bouquet Gardens, are not represented, Yerace said.

RSA President Brian Kelly said the addition of an Amos representative is welcome.

“Having another building represented in RSA just strengthens the organization as a whole,” he said.

He said part of the reason Amos has not been involved in the past is that much of sorority programming has been done through Panhellenic Association.

“I’m very excited by the interest that has been expressed by the residents of Amos Hall and I know they’ll put on good programs,” he said.

Griffith said that RSA handles concerns about parking, food and housing issues, as well as puts on campuswide programs.

Upcoming RSA programs include Nightmare in the Quad for Halloween, Ayah said.