Board of Trustees sides with President

Written By Alexander Popichak, Editor-in-Chief

Board of Trustees Chair Joseph Greco told the United Student Government (USG) that the board stands behind its president during the legislative body’s meeting Monday.

“The Board finds that the concerns raised in the faculty letter of August 25th do not support the discipline of Paul Hennigan as President of the University,” Greco said in a prepared statement.

On Aug. 24, the Faculty Assembly passed a vote of no confidence on University President Paul Hennigan. The Board of Trustees then hired an independent investigator last week to assess the effectiveness of the leadership of Hennigan.

Responding to a question from USG Vice President Davion Heron, Greco addressed the gap between the Faculty Assembly’s findings and the Board’s stance.

“This was a big event for us,” Greco said. “Having gone through it, and facing the results, we are more confident than ever that Dr. Hennigan’s leadership, as good as it was, is going to get a lot better.”

Greco told the legislative body the board will be working with Hennigan to address any deficiencies and said Hennigan is “100 percent on board” with working on an effective path forward.

Greco became chair of the Board of Trustees this summer following the departure of longtime chair Anne Lewis. Greco told the legislative body as they resumed their meeting that he served as parliamentarian for USG when he was a student at Point Park, and wished the body well in their endeavors.

USG Treasurer Josh Croup reported that nine clubs have submitted their request for funds via PointSync as of Monday’s meeting. The deadline to submit the application for funds was yesterday and the finance committee will meet Friday to make budget recommendations.

Sophomore senator Haley Hoffman, speaking for the finance committee, recommended making part of the online club fund request form optional. Prior to Monday’s amendment, clubs were required to share their mission statement as part of the online form. Hoffman said that while the portion of the form will be optional, it will be taken into account during funding meetings.

“Their mission statement is in their constitution,” Hoffman said. “For their event [proposals,] if they put in their mission statement, that’s the way, if they need a dollar or something, that’ll be okay [because] you were willing to put that extra time in.”

The change will take effect at the start of the next funding period.

In addition to the change, the legislative body approved two clubs’ applications for recognition. The Rebel Alliance is a Star Wars-themed club and Campus Cursive is a club aiming to spread messages of encouragement.

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering and Student Leaders for Animal Ethics applied for recognition, but were sent back for revision and did not receive approval.

“If we send back a constitution, it could be in regards to the constitution not being specific as to what their goals were as a club, maybe what they stood for or if there were major formatting errors,” said Zac Seymour, USG Parliamentarian.

The legislative body has invited the clubs to re-apply and if the revisions are made, they will still be able to apply and be granted funding during next week’s budget meeting.

USG is seeking to fill its graphic design position. Interested parties are invited to apply through USG’s PointSync portal. Applicants need not be currently involved with USG to apply, and would be tasked with designing flyers and other advertising and promotional visuals.

Freshmen have until Wednesday, Sept. 13 at 11:45 p.m. to vote on PointSync for their representatives. The winners will be sworn in next week at USG’s first funding meeting of the year.

Disclosure: USG Treasurer Josh Croup also serves as the Globe’s Co-Sports Editor.