Clubs at Point Park will now only have to go through one budget period for the Spring 2021 semester, as of the Student Government Association’s meeting on Monday, Nov. 30.

“The Finance Committee decided to see how we can improve for the spring semester. [With] a combination of everyone’s different experiences…we have decided to do one funding period for the entirety of spring 2021,” SGA Treasurer Kasey Newman said. “We came to this conclusion because there’s just a lot of stress and confusion and the fact that the SAIL guidelines are still going to be the same and we honestly really don’t know what January’s going to be like in terms of events and things like that.”

Newman added that without spring break, things will be passing by in a stranger way than normal, so this may just be easier for clubs.

“This is temporary because we are in a pandemic. And we all felt that with the way funding went this semester, that it was prudent for us to make some changes. We have found that our normal funding works in a normal year…and we didn’t want this to be a permanent change,” Senator Grace Tyler Frank-Rempel said.

Every club will be able to submit once, be able to appeal and be able to request additional funds given specific circumstances outlined by the Finance Committee.

In order to pass the funding, three bylaws had to be suspended to allow for one funding period. One of the bylaws outlined that SGA had to have two funding periods, another required two separate dates for submitting budget forms for clubs, and the last one outlined two separate dates for the Finance Committee submitting the budget recommendations to the legislative body.

The legislative body moved to suspend bylaws 603.2, 603.21 and 603.51 for the spring semester. After that, the legislative body also moved to approve the Spring 2021 funding plan.

In another update, pronouns will reportedly be added to everyone’s names on the Point Park website. President Pro-Tempore Sophie Burkholder said that she had been told that this would happen by next year.

“And hopefully with that upgrade, people will be able to see others’ pronouns and to call them by the correct pronouns and not misgender individuals. So that’s the goal there,” Burkholder said.

Sophie Burkholder and SGA President Dennis McDermott also said that with the switch to all remote learning and the stress of the last few weeks of the semester that they were being understanding about office hours. They are just requiring senators to email their availability. McDermott suggested that senators do their homework during their office hours in order to fulfill the requirement while also not falling behind on their studies.

Burkholder reminded the legislative body that funding for the International Student Relief Fund ends on Dec. 31 and thanked everyone who participated.