Rules committee set to present recommend by-law changes

Written By Sarah Gibson, SGA Beat Writer

In their last meeting before spring break, the Student Government Association of Point Park University (SGA) heavily encouraged involvement among the senators and executive cabinet members. The meeting opened with Communications Director Kari Dettorre encouraging SGA staff to come to the “self-love fair” on Tuesday, Feb. 18th and help out. The fair is an event that is a part of National Eating Disorder Awareness Week, or NEDA. Senators were encouraged to come and were told that they would be able to use their involvement at this event in lieu of one office hour.

Proceeding this, the finance committee recommended SGA provide emergency funding to PRSSA, whose account had been frozen due to a misunderstanding, and the club was requesting $620. The legislative body unanimously voted to grant them the emergency funding.

Following this, Recording Secretary Jordyn Hronec reminded the legislative body that Come Complain Again! would be held on March 2nd. They were also reminded that there would be food at this event.

During the second open floor portion of the meeting, President Pro-Tempore Bryce Hayzlett requested the thoughts of senators on the SGA dress code. He explained that the dress code was going to be addressed at the rules committee meeting which would immediately follow the legislative body meeting that day. After some senators shared their thoughts, Prim Green from the Graduate Student Association (GSA) spoke up to ask the legislative body what they were currently working on. Senator Dennis McDermott volunteered to share that he was currently working alongside Pioneer Pantry, Last Call for Food and 412 Food in order to help food insecurity at Point Park, which is around 40%, the highest of any schools in the Pittsburgh region.

While Senator Jade Steele was not present, The Vice President did mention that she was heavily involved with working with CulinArt in order to try to get a hold on their cross-contamination problem.

After this, Prim Green of the GSA presented plans for a commuter resource trip involving taking a shuttle to the Monroeville Convention Center to talk with Port Authority officials about the possibility of obtaining bus passes for Point Park students. The meeting adjourned with the reminder that because next week is spring break, the next SGA legislative body meeting will be in two weeks.

At the proceeding rules committee meeting, the topics of the semester requirement, uniforms and office hours were discussed.

After some deliberation from those involved and a vote, the rules committee voted to propose the deletion of the by-law that requires candidates to have one semester of SGA experience before running for president, in an effort to make it more open to everyone, and to accommodate those who had gotten experience in student government in high school. After much deliberation it was decided that in regards to the dress code, the committee would recommend that the dress code by-law be changed to be more open-ended and up to the discretion of the President Pro-Tempore. When the rules committee meeting passed an hour in length, it was suggested that the meeting officially end early, though members could stay back and continue to talk about the final issue of enforcing office hours if they so desired.