SGA held its second meeting of the semester Monday in the Professional Career Readiness Center (PCRC) to discuss the first round of club budgets for this semester, along with other initiatives.
Treasurer Sam Fehl said student clubs were allocated about $6,450 in total, a sturdy cut of SGA’s semester operating budget of $10,000.
Some requests were partially denied, like funding to the Black Student Union (BSU), who applied for around $2,700 to host events for Black History Month and March Madness.
About $200 of that request was cut, though, as it was intended to compensate students performing for the BSU’s “Beyond the Fabric” show; SGA’s constitution bars funding from being allocated directly to students.
Beyond funding, the legislature also continued their ongoing discussion of fast-approaching presidential and senator elections.
President Rangel discussed plans to distribute flyers under each dorm room door to increase engagement.
The upcoming election will be for the president pro-tempore (PPT), who serves as the liaison between senators and the executive cabinet during committee meetings. The PPT also chairs the Student Innovative Committee.
At a larger scale, elections for the president, vice president and senators will also be coming up soon.
Vice President Madigan Balfe discussed further engagement with The Globe, including a breaking-news segment for major events — like Lawrence Hall’s flooding.
She reached out to The Globe, who will meet on Friday to discuss implementing procedures such as emergency interviews if something on the same scale as Lawrence Hall’s flooding occurs again.
Sienna Wraith, SGA’s parliamentarian, discussed two new clubs at Point Park: the Bowling Club and the Racing Club.
The Bowling Club will be meeting at Bowlero in Carnegie, Pa. and will have both competitive and recreational teams.
The other, Racing Club, will encourage students to build their own one-seat race car.
There were discussions about the cost of building such a car, and Keely Sapienza, director of SAIL, said they are working with the Engineering Department on a million-dollar grant to fund the project.
Some also had concerns about student safety, given the nature of the club, and others were confused about the contents of their constitution. Michael Gieseke suggested that the club come in to provide further explanation and address the board’s question regarding its constitution.
During the meeting closing, SGA’s ongoing harassment on Yik Yak issue was brought up.
Recently, SGA has been getting hate on anonymous forum platforms such as Yik Yak.
On Yik Yak, the SGA is supposedly getting blamed for things it says are out of its control, and students are complaining that it isn’t doing enough, or anything, for that matter.
Some of it is directed at the entire government, but some is personal animosity toward certain board members.
Vice President Balfe suggested the legislature post an explanation of what they do and why things take time, to help students understand the limitations it faces, since it is still a student-run association.
