Confusion hit United Student Government (USG) as a money dispute between Black Student Union (BSU) and Strong Women, Strong Girls (SWSG) emerged.

BSU Treasurer Alannah Owens brought the money concern for its bake sale event to USG’s attention.

According to Owens, Kate Shipley, assistant coordinator of Student Involvement, allowed SWSG to purchase the items for the event using BSU’s allocated budget.

SWSG spent almost $50 of BSU’s $25 event budget, but SWSG had no involvement in the bake sale.

Owens admitted her confusion, as she did not authorize SWSG to use BSU’s budget.

“There’s a bigger problem here,” Vice President Bobby Bertha said. “One club shouldn’t be buying items for another club.”

USG Treasurer Amedea Baldoni said she will look into the situation.

“We can’t really do anything until we figure it out,” Baldoni said. “We need to figure out if it’s an issue regarding Kate Shipley, an issue regarding other clubs buying things, or if it’s an issue with some getting permission.”

Continuing the meeting, USG amended its bylaws concerning funding. Due to late budget submissions this semester, Senator Hayley Hoffman moved to add penalties for late budget requests from clubs and organizations.

The club or organization then must go to the USG office to complete a late form and have a representative come to a legislative body meeting to plead a case for budget approval.

Within these bylaws, if approved, the finance committee will deduct 25 percent of all late budget requests and recommend a new number.

“The reason we are doing this is we want the form to be closed completely,” Hoffman said of closing the budget window on time.

Sen. Dan Murphy opposed this legislation.

Bringing awareness to mental health, Sen. KacieJo Brown detailed a plan to spread recognition into next semester.

“I worked with Student Concerns and with CAB last week,” Brown said. “I’m going to work with the mental health counseling services this week.”

Brown plans to roll out with the hashtag “#ItsOkayNotToBeOkay” and give out lime-green ribbons to signify awareness.

Discussing the food committee meetings with CulinArt, Vice President Bobby Bertha said Phase II of its renovations to the café and dining hall will take place over winter break. Bertha also said that CulinArt posts its daily menu onto its Facebook page.

Brown said that CulinArt is open to new ideas, especially from students, citing the previous food service Aramark’s wing night in the dining hall.

Parliamentarian Charles Murria and Recording Secretary Davion Heron announced that electronic copies of public USG documents are also moving to hard copy. USG shifted to digitized records recently but decided to have a physical copy of the information.

Students can access the public hard copy information through the USG office on the 7th floor of the Student Center.

USG also almost failed to reach quorum, starting the meeting two minutes after scheduled time. However, the student government reached the total amount of senators needed for the meeting.

According to the USG constitution, “in order for votes to be cast at a Legislative Body meeting, a quorum, consisting of one half the total members of the Legislative Body plus one, must be present.”

The legislative body currently consists of 12 senators including the president pro tempore.

Point Park’s student government body meetings will start back up at the start of the spring semester.