A nearly three-week process to allocate funds to student organizations came to its conclusion on Monday at the legislative body meeting. 

The Finance Committee of United Student Government (USG) had just over $850 to divvy up between several different student organizations that requested supplemental funding after allocating money to all clubs last Monday. 

Nine clubs attended last Thursday’s Finance Committee meeting to make changes to their budgets – either through reallocations, supplemental funding or a combination of the two. 

The John P. Harris Film Society cut its Halloween party and reallocated $100 from that event to snacks and the remaining $25 to posters. A representative of the Outdoor Adventure Club requested to reallocate $85 from its horseback riding event. $30 of that will be used to cover costs of the club’s Halloween caving event, $25 will be reallocated to advertising and the remaining $30 is going toward a Movember event, which Outdoor Adventure Club is sponsoring. 

The Sports, Art and Entertainment Management (SAEM) Club received $150 in supplemental funding to put toward its Steelers tailgate. USG granted the Global Cultural Studies (GCS) Club $100 in supplemental funding to bring in Black Rap Medusa, a rapper from the greater Pittsburgh area, for its music festival. Confluence received an additional $200 to put toward the cost of its seventh annual undergraduate research conference. The Anime Club got an additional $100 to put toward its holiday mixer.

Point Chic was the final club who had representatives at the Finance Committee meeting. The newly formed fashion blog club was set to receive $140 in supplemental funding for a PointChic Mall event, in which they plan to have a clothing drive, catering by Auntie Anne’s and 6-10 local clothing vendors to bring a mall to campus. 

The legislative body also discussed this year’s Food Service Night, which is on Nov. 4. 

At the Food Service Night, members of USG will serve students in the Lawrence Hall Dining Room. 

USG picks a theme for the event and creates a menu from that theme. While it is still awaiting approval from Point Park Dining Services, USG decided to do a world cultures theme. The students hope to feature food from various countries around the world at each station in the dining hall. 

“It’s a fun and interesting way to get student concerns,” President Pro-Tempore Gabriel Dubin said. “It makes [the student body] aware that we’re there – we’re present, we’re reaching out.”

USG has recently made a greater effort to reach out to constituents and gather student concerns. Previously, student concerns were collected via a suggestion box on the second floor of Lawrence Hall, at tables set up in a common location for a few hours, by email or in-office visits. 

Last week, however, USG put student concern boxes in the West Penn lobby, the new lounge space on the second floor of Lawrence Hall and in the 24-hour computer lab on the second floor of Thayer Hall.  

Also at the meeting, the legislative body voted to send a Dress Code bill back to the Rules Committee after much discussion among the senators. 

The dress code proposed that USG members dress business casual for their weekly legislative body meetings, outlining what can and cannot be worn. 

“We’re not trying to…hinder what they wear,” Vice President Andrew LeDonne said. “What they are [wearing]…is respectable among their peers, but when you’re dealing with the upper administration, we’re looking for a little bit more effort.”

According to the bill, which is being revised, if a USG member comes to a meeting underdressed three times, he or she will receive one absence. According to the current USG Constitution, any member who has three absences gets censured. 

“I think it’s very limited and could be really backward thinking,” Senator Colten Gill said during the meeting. “I think it’s too restrictive.”

The legislative body voiced a number of concerns about the bill to the Rules Committee – namely, gender. The bill outlined what females can wear, as well as what males can wear, which some senators felt is inappropriate, considering some students participating in USG may identify as transgender or outside of the gender binary. 

“My suggestion is that you vote this back to committee,” President Julian Singleton announced to the legislative body during the discussion. “If it goes into law, I’m going to veto it anyway.”