Religious distress became a student concern after a mixup in food labeling at the Pittsburgh Playhouse led to the consumption of pork.

Senator Samiar Nefzi brought to United Student Government’s (USG) attention about the incident that took place at Premieres Cafe in the Playhouse. After mislabeling, a freshman Muslim student consumed a pierogi with bacon without her knowledge, although its consumption being against Islamic faith.

“She’s gone 19 years without eating pork,” Nefzi said.

Dean of Students Keith Paylo informed the legislative body of the quick response to the issue from CulinArt staff, but admitted the event is troubling.

“That was a misfortunate occurrence,” Paylo said. “There was mislabeling throughout the process, even [from] the distributor.”

This comes a little more than a month after Kristy Weiss, Food Service Director at Point Park, addressed USG about food concerns in all food locations on campus.

“We still have a long way to go,” Weiss told USG on Feb. 13.

Paylo reiterated that this serving was not intentional and that it was handled in a swift manner.

Stressing student concerns as a priority, Senator Daniel Murphy called for the legislative body to evaluate the achievements and problems of this school year. He hopes this will help addressing student concerns better.

“This is so we can kind of get a game plan ready and hit next year running full speed,” Murphy said.

Treasurer Amber Mole also announced that an estimated amount of $50,400 of USG’s budget has been spent on clubs and organizations’ allocations.

Currently, Point Park’s Business Office confirmed that $44,402 has been spent for this semester. Mole stressed that the confirmed $6,000 spent in February was not yet confirmed in the total, leading to the estimation.

USG ended its budget allocations last week after sending some clubs’ budgets back to finance committee two weeks ago. However, if a club or organization needs additional money, USG has a cushion as a precaution.

As USG prepares for next school year, President Blaine King announced the USG Presidential and Vice Presidential Debates this evening at 7:30 p.m. in the Center for Media Innovation. U-View, the campus television station, will be hosting the event.

He continued by stressing that the USG elections are taking place next week from April 3 to 7.

Vice President Bobby Bertha, who is running for president, asked King if there would be any election tables set up around campus for student awareness.

King responded saying that the election ballot will be submitted on PointSync rather than in person, but said the tables may be in the works.

The president also announced that Nurse Heather Capo, director of Health Services, will talk to USG next Monday, April 3.

Senators previously have voiced student concerns about the irregular hours of the nurse’s office on campus.