By SHANNON O. WELLS
In his report to Senate Council on Sept. 14, Ryan Young, Pitt’s Student Government Board president, made it abundantly clear that SGB has been far from idle since the conclusion of the 2022-23 academic year last spring.
Noting that he just got out of a COVID quarantine, Young said that “a lot of students are testing positive right now. I think there’s spread of a new wave going around. So certainly keep that in mind when interacting with students and interacting with the University community.”
The SGB launched a new, “streamlined” website supported by University Communications “to better and more easily handle our open positions, to handle our allocations requests, our updates and more,” Young said, adding that the site creates a “sustainable way for us communicate with the student body. And I think it’s just cleaner and easier for us overall.”
Student Government is undergoing office renovations to make its workspace more accessible, especially for students in wheelchairs that have had some difficulties in the past, Young said, adding that while Disability Ad Hoc Committee is in the works, SGB is “making sure that our own office space is accessible before we start working on the broader campus.”
Some of what Young discussed applied strictly to students, but there were some items of interest to the entire Pitt community:
Sunscreen dispensers: SGB is collaborating with the Frederick Honors College on a student-led project to install sunscreen dispensers or on campus in high-traffic areas on campus.
“This was actually a project that was brought to us at the end last year by external students who worked with the Cancer Center … We thought was really cool,” Young said. “And we were really happy to help them produce that, and actually we’re installing those right now. So it’s cool to see that project get to completion so quickly.”
Naloxone availability: The board is working with Students for Sensible Drug Policy on an initiative with the Allegheny County Health Department, Student Affairs and Pitt medical experts to make Naloxone, a medicine that rapidly reverses opioid drug overdoses, readily available on campus.
Democracy Week: SGB is planning this new event during the week leading up to Election Day on Nov. 7. The group is “trying to have a number of consumer organizations produce events to bring speakers to campus, local politicians just to kind of celebrate civic engagement and ultimately have all these groups come together on Election Day in some sort of election festival,” Young said, adding the goal is to “bring together both sides of the aisle to just participate and help celebrate civic engagement as a whole.”
Civic engagement fellows: Two have been hired in collaboration with PittServes to support SGB work promoting civic engagement on campus. The goal, Young said, is to collaborate to produce new programming and advise students on how best to stay politically engaged. “I’m excited to see it take a little bit of a new form this year.”
Budget message: SGB released a joint statement with Pitt’s Democrat and Republican student groups encouraging students to contact their state representatives “to demand they pass this essential appropriation.” Noting that Chancellor Joan Gabel previously mentioned the effect stalled budget negotiations has on students, Young said “we’re trying to mobilize the student body and regional representatives to add that extra pressure.”
Committees and task forces
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Disability Resources Ad Hoc Committee, originally authorized last year, aims to advocate the needs and goals of students with disabilities.
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Renters First Ad Hoc Committee will address renters’ issues and educate student mentors on tenant rights, responsibilities and resources, and “increase awareness of the unaffordable, low-quality housing problem in Oakland and advocate for policies and laws that improve the student-tenant experience,” Young said.
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Students of Color and Solidarity Ad Hoc committee will work to build a network of our communities of color at Pitt.
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Single-Use Plastics Task Force, a collaboration with the Office of Sustainability, “is going to work to reduce the use of single use plastics at Pitt,” Young said.
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Pitt Workers United Ad Hoc Committee is aimed to empower and uplift the voices student workers at Pitt.
Senate Council President Robin Kear thanked Young for such a thorough report. “That is a great start to the year. You put us to shame,” she said to a chorus of laughter. “That’s really quite a lot.”
Shannon O. Wells is a writer for the University Times. Reach him at shannonw@pitt.edu.
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