Safety concerns were the main topic of the SGA meeting on Nov. 18, referring to several recent incidents involving students in parts of Downtown.
Sen. Madigan Balfe started the discussion with talks about a possible mugging that happened outside of Point Perk earlier in the day.
“I did not see too much of it, but as I was walking to class I saw people standing around during the aftermath,” Balfe said. “I walked into class and multiple other students had witnessed it, but I did not the see the mugging itself.
“I think there is always going to be a level of safety concerns in urban areas, and since we’re the most urban campus in the city, we are going to have the most disproportionate amount of concerns,” Balfe said, attributing the issue to the lack of control over a campus located on public property.
Point Park Police only have jurisdiction over areas considered Point Park property, which stops right outside the University Center. Additionally, sidewalks are considered public property.
Just last week on Nov.13, an unknown male was charged with defiant trespassing in West Penn Hall and passing out in the Center for Media Innovation (CMI).
Students presented other incidents regarding student safety to SGA, requesting a solution. President Kyle MacLaughlin said he plans to reach out to public safety to see if someone would be willing to speak at a future meeting.
“We’ve been talking about a number of issues with safety on campus over the past couple of weeks, and I think it is pretty clear that this is something that needs to be addressed,” MacLaughlin said.
Another thing discussed during the meeting was reallocating or finding a different way to distribute funds for the Coalition of Christian Outreach (CCO). CCO asked for a reallocation after its Operation Christmas Child Event was cancelled.
The club held a coffee tabling event in the place of Operation Christmas Child, asking for some of the funds to be reallocated for coffee cups and stirring sticks. The total reallocation is $39.47, which is within the original allocation.
The reallocation was approved with a vote of 10-0.
SGA also voted to approve constitution edits for the Criminal Justice Club.
There were no noticeable changes made to the constitution, but it was edited to be more up to date with the club’s goals.
The Criminal Justice Club’s mission remains the same – to engage with law enforcement, invest in the community and provide a safe space for criminal justice majors to explore their major outside the classroom. The constitution was approved 11-0.
Lastly, Pro Tempore Robert Fornataro gave an update on the zine fair, which will be a future SGA event. It was originally planned for this semester, but was moved to next semester.
“We’re moving it to February because we have bigger SGA events coming up later in the spring,” Fornataro said. “Then we moved on to just a fun filler event.”
The filler event’s name is SGA ’n Sip, with the hopes that SGA can have a hot chocolate bar and activities event. The hot chocolate bar will offer things like whipped cream and sprinkles and if you want to stay after, you get your hot chocolate. There will be activities like slime-making and coloring.
