Student Government Board Plans Safety and Budget Reforms for 2024-25

During a recent meeting at Nordy’s Place, the Student Government Board (SGB) unveiled a series of initiatives aimed at enhancing student safety and improving the efficiency of budget allocations for the 2024-25 academic year.

In response to a series of discrimination-related incidents on campus, board member Evan Levasseur proposed a charter for a new anti-hate ad-hoc committee. This committee is intended to serve as a focal point for addressing discrimination issues, including recent attacks on Jewish students and polarizing events on campus.

“To create a safe campus for all students, this ad-hoc committee will identify acts of hate in all forms,” Levasseur stated. “The scope of this committee will be intentionally broad, and this will allow them to address topical issues as they arise.”

The board will vote on this proposal in the upcoming meeting. Earlier, SGB President Sarah Mayer had addressed the campus community about the unacceptable nature of hate crimes targeting Jewish communities.

“I want to be clear — acts of violence and antisemitism will never be tolerated on our campus or in our community,” Mayer declared. “I’m confident that the Pitt community will continue in the spirit to foster an environment built upon love and inclusivity.”

In terms of financial allocations, the board is re-examining its policies in response to an increasing number of allocation requests.

“[We’re] working to gather some information about our allocations spending over the last few years,” Mayer explained. “I’m hoping we can use this data to move forward with some changes and improvements to our allocations budget.”

In October, Mayer and Lorraine Craven, executive associate dean of student affairs, discussed a potential increase in the student activity fee to better support the growing demand for funds.

“The student activities fund just can’t bear the weight of every request,” Mayer noted. “We’re trying to meet the demand, but we’re already kind of on track to run out of money.”

In a previous session, board member Andrew Elliott expressed concerns over the size of allocation requests.

“We have $900,000 to give out every year. It sounds like a lot of money, but there are over 800 clubs at Pitt,” Elliott emphasized. “Continuing to fund these large dollar amounts may become more challenging for us specifically because of the quantity of requests we have.”

Allocations chair Nicole Zheng mentioned that an audit of the allocations manual is underway to identify trends and improve the budget process.

“We’re working on doing a five-year audit to look at our spending and request volume,” Zheng stated. “We want to put something together about the pattern of requests we’ve been receiving this year.”

Zheng hopes these efforts will make the allocations budget more accessible, ensuring fair distribution despite limitations.

“Our goal is to distribute the limited amount of funding we have fairly, which unfortunately means we aren’t able to fund everything,” Zheng mentioned.

Allocations

Dhirana’s request for $11,337.50 for an event was postponed until the next public meeting.

The Hydroponics Club’s $8,000 project request was amended and approved at $3,100.

The joint request of $20,225.32 from the Chinese American and Vietnamese Student Organizations was approved in full.

The Chinese American Student Association’s request for $7,000 was revised and approved at $6,675.

The Vietnamese Student Association’s $10,000 request was amended and approved at $6,000.

Club Gymnastics’ request for $3,795 was revised and approved at $3,630.

Model United Nations’ request of $3,226.02 for two events was amended and approved at $2,330.60.

The Muslim Student Association’s request for $17,364 was approved in full asynchronously last Friday.