By SUSAN JONES

At a meeting last week, the undergraduate Student Government Board discussed its desire to add a voting student member to Pitt’s Board of Trustees, The Pitt News reported.

SGB President Marley Pinsky said at the meeting that she would soon be meeting with Chancellor Joan Gabel, Vice Provost Carla Panzella and Provost Joseph McCarthy to discuss the proposal.

Pinsky told the University Times that she met with Gabel and other senior leaders and that the chancellor was supportive and offered insights “on ways this plan could be implemented. Two of her previous institutions — the University of Minnesota and University of South Carolina — had student trustees, so she expressed that she was familiar with the model and offered to connect me with former student trustees from those institutions.” 

The University had no comment on the proposal. Pinsky said SGB has not yet brought the proposal before the Board of Trustees. “We are hoping to gather support from a broad coalition of students and student organizations before making our official ask.”

Currently, students sit on Board of Trustees committees, but not on the full Board of Trustees, and they do not have voting power on the committees. Plus they can not discuss what is talked about in the meetings.

Pinsky, a junior majoring in Urban Planning & Geographic Analysis and Politics-Philosophy,  said adding voting student trustees was “an idea that I campaigned on when running for SGB president. I originally became interested in this idea after learning that SGB representatives do not have voting power in Board of Trustees committees, which I believe limits our ability to participate meaningfully in shared governance.”

Pinsky said that several other universities, including the three other state-related universities — Penn State, Temple and Lincoln — have voting student members on their boards. ACC schools with voting student trustees include the University of Miami, North Carolina State University, University of Louisville, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and Florida State University.

After researching student trustee models at other universities, Pinsky said, “It concerned me (on behalf of students and Pitt's reputation) to think that Pitt is behind the curve in terms of uplifting student perspectives.”

Susan Jones is editor of the University Times. Reach her at suejones@pitt.edu or 724-244-4042.

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