The Allegheny Student Government discussed appointments to a college committee, access to ethernet adapters and the response time of Public Safety officers at their General Assembly on Tuesday, Sept. 26. All that happened after a moment of silence for Cinna Krushel, ’27, who passed away last week.
Committee
The only item on new business this week was the appointment of three students to be voting representatives on the Finance and Facilities Committee: Kat Pointer, ’25, Tyler Ziggas, ’25, and Senator Ray Colabawalla, ’25. ASG has four voting positions allocated for students on this committee.
Pointer, who said she was interested in FFC because she’s “always been interested in finance,” received the vote of every senator save one. Senator Aidan McGrory, ’26, abstained, because he said he was unable to hear Pointer.
Ziggas identified himself as a recent transfer from the College of Wooster in Ohio.
“I attended a few sessions of the Jenny Investment Club (at Wooster), which is a portfolio run by my friend, RM Hoque,” Ziggas said. “The portfolios were over $10 million, so I understand a little bit of finance and I figure that we can find out a way that we can network with him in order to ameliorate the Allegheny experience.”
He received unanimous approval from the Senate.
The final appointee was Colabawalla, who cited his previous work within ASG as the reason he should be approved.
“I was not on the Finance and Facilities Committee, but I helped appoint people to the Finance and Facilities Committee and occasionally filled in as a non-voting member,” Colabawalla said. “I understand how the committee works.”
He was approved by every senator save for two; Colabawalla was joined by Ratliff in abstaining.
The votes came after a debate earlier in the meeting during the cabinet report of Chief of Staff Daria Kutova, ’25.
Kutova said she would be nominating herself to be a voting representative on FFC until ASG found all four nominees, at which point she would only serve as a voting member if another student was absent.
This drew criticism from Colabawalla, who said that it was too early for ASG to look inward for college committee assignments.
“It’s definitely not unprecedented or anything — I guess it’s just last year, after months of searching, we finally decided to look inward,” Colabawalla said. “Do we want to give the rest of the student body a chance to be more involved with student involvement with the administration, rather than just the same people that are involved in ASG?”
ASG had not advertised the college committee positions enough to the wider student body, Colabawalla added.
A handful of posters advertising the committees are posted in the campus center, and a MyAllegheny post went out on the topic on Sept. 19. However, there have been no posts advertising the committees on ASG’s social media pages.
Attorney General Will Lowthert, ’24, said that there was no constitutional basis for having four voting members and then a voting alternate.
“Hypothetically, if we appoint four voting members, those are the four people that can vote in that committee even if there’s a fifth student there — that student cannot vote, even if there’s an absent student.”
Vice President Sam Ault, ’26, also clarified that a fourth student — Zack Wyse, ’25 — had expressed interest in serving on FFC but was not in attendance and could not be appointed at this week’s session..
Kutova’s self-nomination was not acted on during the meeting.
Internet
Director of Student Affairs London Dejarnette, ’24, reported that they had tabled in the campus center to gather student concerns. Among the concerns raised were persistent issues with internet connection, Dejarnette said, adding that additional ethernet adapters — which allow laptops to use more stable wired internet connections — have been ordered by Information Technology staff.
Senator Christopher Ratliff, ’24, raised his placard to comment.
“They ordered around, I think 50 and they should have come in, I think today, and students can request them,” said Ratliff, who said he is a student worker in IT. “But if there is a massive need, IT can order more. In terms of dispersion, it’s just you show up to the Help Desk and you can get your ethernet cable at whatever size you need, and the adapter. But they are first-come, first-serve.”
The conversation then turned to how to get the information out to students. ASG President Nicole Recio Bremer, ’25, asked if IT was planning on posting this information or getting it out more broadly.
“I don’t think there’s been any mention of that,” Ratliff said. “However, I do know that if students can’t get access to them at this moment, I’m pretty sure the library has the adapters at the front desk that you can ask to use.”
The adapters at the Library Services Desk can be checked out for three hours at a time for in-library use only.
“If they’re not communicating that with students, why can’t we?” Dejarnette asked.
Recio Bremer replied that it would be better to talk to IT first about how to get the message out, “because it’s not really our thing to handle,” as Dejarnette replied with “I know, that makes sense.”
Ratliff ended the conversation by saying that he would ask the IT department when he went to work the following day.
Public Safety
Another issue students raised was the response time of the Office of Public Safety, Dejarnette said.
“There’s been a lot of fire alarms going off recently, and it seems that there is an increasing problem with the speed in which Public Safety comes — even if they do come,” Dejarnette said.
Recio Bremer said the problems for Brooks and Walker Halls — which share a building and evacuate together if an alarm is tripped in either building — are a result of a lightning strike. The strike hit a tree near the building, interfering with the system that informs Public Safety if a fire alarm has tripped and rendering it useless.
“RAs (Resident Advisors) are notified that they should call Public Safety when a fire alarm goes off because then Public Safety can come in and do whatever they have to do,” Recio Bremer said. “If you’re a student that lives in Brooks-Walker, I invite you to call Public Safety when the fire alarm goes off … If you live in Brooks-Walker, I’m sorry for you. I also live there. So let’s cope with it and call Public Safety.”
At this point Director of the Treasury Hunter Goerman, ’25, spoke up, saying that he was the RA on duty the night of Monday, Sept. 25, when an alarm was tripped.
“I called Public Safety and I tried asking if the alarm was working,” Goerman said. “They hung up on me before I asked the question. So can we confirm whether it’s working? Because they said they knew about it.”
Dejarnette also said that they live in the North Village complex, and that at times it can take Public Safety close to half an hour to respond to an ongoing alarm.
To avoid the alarms in the first place, Recio Bremer advised students to be conservative with their dormitory facilities.
“I encourage you not to cook and not be able to — if you don’t know how to cook, don’t,” Recio Bremer said, to laughter from the assembly. “I invite you to not cover smoke detectors and I invite you to follow the rules. If we all follow the rules, the system’s going to be better.”
Other business
Director of Communication and Press Jude Gotschall, ’26, announced that the new ASG logo was complete, and is available in the meeting’s minutes. The new logo retains the circular shape, but uses the new color palette announced last week, adjusts the sizing of the lettering, and replaces the “1815” at the bottom of the logo with three yellow stars.
Goerman also announced just over $13,000 in spending for the week for 17 clubs, including $11,156 from the General Fund and $1,895 from the Surplus Fund.
ASG will meet again next Tuesday, Oct. 3, where Dean for Student Success Ian Binnington is scheduled to discuss the future of the Caflisch Hall site.
