photo by Sydney Schaefer
USG President, Julian Singleton speaks about issues relating to Point Park’s food service at the USG meeting on Monday afternoon.

At this week’s United Student Government (USG) meeting, a discussion regarding the University’s plan for a shuttle service tracking software was conducted.

Christopher Hill, vice president of Operations at Point Park, displayed the new tracking software and explained its purpose and how students will be able to use it.

The software shows where each Point Park shuttle is in real time, giving students the privilege to be able to plan when to get to the shuttle stops accordingly.

“This is what we found right now that would be the best option for us,” Hill said.

Although there is no app for this service that students with smartphones would be able to use, the software can be accessed on smartphone Internet browsers, as well as computer browsers. 

The University will supply a general login for students so it will be accessible to them anytime, anywhere.   

Hill also stated the university is looking into supplying computers that will be put in at the Student Center and in Academic Hall. These computers will display the same shuttle-tracking map for student accessibility.

Another point Hill touched upon was the interactive displays the University is hoping to put up within the next two months. These interactive screens will have a variety of different things displayed on them, including a live display of the shuttle service tracking software.

These interactive displays will be put up in every major building on campus, including Lawrence Hall, Academic Hall, West Penn Hall, the Student Center and the University Center.

Later on in the meeting, USG President Julian Singleton spoke about his meeting with Bridget Mancosh, the senior vice president of Finance and Operations, where the main focus was the food service on campus.

“We couldn’t really come up with how we felt about it… what really came out of this is, we need specific examples of what’s wrong,” Singleton said.

Singleton further explained that words just aren’t doing it anymore. To really grab the staff’s attention, pictures and times should be submitted. Specifics are needed to combat the issues.

He also emphasized that this information has to come from students. Their involvement is what will start to better the University’s food service.

However, a conversation about how these pictures and comments should be submitted surfaced. 

“We want to try to keep the pictures off of social media,” Andrew LeDonne, USG vice president, said.

It was recommended by Michael Gieseke, Dean of Student Life, for USG to create a way for students to document and forward their concerns about the food service to the proper personnel in the moment.

“I think something needs to change and that’s only something that is going to come from you all as students,” Gieseke said.

USG tried this approach before with Snapchat, but Singleton stated that with that, they ran the risk of receiving inappropriate photos sent to them, stating that the same risk exists with any social media forum.

Dean of Students and Associate Vice President of Student Affairs Keith Paylo took the floor and recommended that comments submitted by students should be sent to the proper source on a weekly basis to get the point across.

“I know, and we know as administrators, if you keep hearing the same thing over and over again, you’re going to react,” Paylo said. “You have to.”