On Sunday, March 15th, the Student Government Association of Point Park University (SGA) held an emergency executive cabinet meeting to establish how business would operate through the quarantine for the rest of the semester. 

“First off, I believe our students need to know that they still have a student government, even in the midst of this event,” President Jake Berlin said at the beginning of the meeting. He proposed that the executive cabinet continue to meet weekly whether at home or in office. 

The first talking point at the meeting addressed how legislative body meetings would be held from here on out. Vice President Grace Tyler Frank-Rempel proposed holding legislative body meetings using Zoom, even though they would be limited to 45 minutes. The meeting members generally agreed. Parliamentarian Jess Wrsozek noted that business could be conducted digitally so long as SGA could reach quorum for voting, which is having half plus one of the present number of senators’ votes. 

It was agreed upon that legislative body meetings would be on the same day and time as regular meetings, but they will be held on Zoom, a platform that can hold teleconferences and meetings up to 45 minutes long for free.

Former Vice President Alexa Lake, who was present for advisory purposes, suggested that SGA purchase a Zoom account, which is only 15 dollars a month and allows meetings to last longer than 45 minutes and also creates a link for spectators to join the meetings, so Point Park students will have access to the meetings even if they are not an SGA senator. Lake also mentioned that with the purchase of a Zoom account, meetings could be recorded and posted at a later date. 

Prior to the decision made by Point Park to cancel all events for the rest of the semester, the decision was made to cancel Pioneer Community Day, originally scheduled for the end of April.

When discussing when regular legislative body meetings would resume, the executive cabinet decided to hold off on having regular Monday meetings until next week. Because the university said that classes wouldn’t start until Wednesday, the executive cabinet decided that the first legislative body meeting via Zoom would occur on Wednesday.

Recording Secretary Jordyn Hronec noted that she would like to continue SGA’s monthly town hall series, but instead of holding them in person, she would like to hold them in a Twitter chat format. The student concerns committee will also continue to collect concerns from students using their new online student concerns collection form.

 For further matters yet to be determined, it was decided that one topic to be discussed in the Wednesday meeting is the possibility of pushing back the elections by one week and setting up the elections board.