Point Park’s United Student Government (USG) voted on a resolution to amend their constitution April 4. The resolution would restructure how senators in the legislative body represent their constituency. The proposed amendment will be voted on by the student body during USG elections this week.

As it stands, the USG is structured to have a senator representative for each grade level within each school. The School of Communication, for example, currently can have a senator for each the freshman, sophomore, junior and senior classes. 

The resolution would change that grade-based structure to one that is more all-encapsulating for each school. There would be six senators per school, who would consider all grade levels within that school to be their constituency, as opposed to one senator representing each grade within each school. 

Both Senators Amedea Baldoni and Daniel Murphy expressed concern that each class would have less of a voice within the new structure. 

Sen. Bobby Bertha responded,saying “The idea is that the entire student body is your constituency, so it’s your job to know what your school wants.” 

Freshman Sen. Murphy suggested instituting a quota to ensure each class has a representative in USG. 

Bertha, who is running unopposed for the Vice President position, said, “We want to grow the organization as a whole. If we were to have three people from the same school who want to run for the same position, only one could be elected, but the other two would still have input we could use.” 

USG President Blaine King said USG is set up for 24 senator positions. Currently, 10 positions are filled, and the resolution would result in a fuller legislative body. However, the resolution passed with Murphy in opposition.

USG moved to recognize a new student club, the Student Human Resources Association (HR Club). The club would cater to human resource majors with the aim of providing support and professional development to improve their members’ career paths. 

No representatives from the newly recognized HR Club were present at the USG meeting.

Some members of USG will be attending Lobby Day in Harrisburg, Pa. this week. Lobby Day is an opportunity to push state and federal legislators for additional student aid, grant money and university funding. Dubin mentioned that they would be meeting with some unnamed chiefs of staff and Pennsylvania State Representative Paul Costa, who is an adjunct professor at Point Park.

President King, who is running unopposed for re-election during this week’s election, gave a speech to USG members, thanking them for their hard work. 

“It was a pleasure working with you this semester and this year. I’m very proud of how everything went and very grateful,” King said. “Hopefully, I can fill this position next year.”

King added, “At the start of the year, we were worried we might not have enough members, but we solved that. We’re [going to] continue this next year, continue to push, and continue this foundation.”

If King is re-elected, he will be the first USG president in recent memory to serve two consecutive terms.