The Allegheny Student Government sped through their shortest General Assembly of the year Tuesday night. In just over 17 minutes, ASG heard election updates and new developments in the senior gift planned by the Class of 2024.
During her regular cabinet report, Parliamentarian Ankitha Pamula, ’24, gave an update on this year’s election — specifically that the presidential debate is set for next Tuesday, March 19, in lieu of the regular GA.
The debate comes as students have shown little interest in running for the ASG presidency; at the end of last month, the filing deadline for the race was extended by three weeks after only one ticket was filed by the original deadline. The new deadline is next Sunday, March 17, at 7:30 p.m.
When the deadline was extended last month, Attorney General Will Lowthert, ’24, declined to identify the one ticket that had filed, citing concerns that releasing that information could influence the election.
Speaking after the GA on Tuesday, Pamula said she could not confirm if any additional candidates had filed to run since the deadline was extended, though she did say that the debate would still happen next week if there was only one ticket on the ballot.
“Even if there is just one candidate, it would still be beneficial for students to come out and ask them questions about what their agenda is and what they plan to do for the next year,” Pamula said.
Pamula also said that the rest of the election timeline remains in place for the moment; Gators will head to the virtual polls from March 24 to March 27, with the results announced by 9 p.m. on March 28. ASG Cabinet applications for the 2024-2025 academic year are then set to open on April 1.
Last year’s debate was held in Quigley Auditorium, though this year’s venue is still up in the air.
“It will likely either be in Shafer or Quigley,” Pamula said during the GA, adding that more information would be sent out via email.
Pamula also developed a Google Form to gather questions for the debate. It is not immediately clear how the form will be distributed, though Pamula did suggest that ASG members share it with people they know.
“Anyone is free to ask questions, so you can send this to anyone,” she said, referring to the Google Form.
While the Google Form was included in the meeting minutes, those minutes were not posted to Engage as of Thursday at 4:15 p.m.
During their weekly report, Class of 2024 President Sasha Holguin offered an update on the senior class gift: an emergency fund for students. The fund will be formed with donations from the senior class on Gator Give Day — an annual fundraising event held in April.
At Tuesday’s GA, Holguin announced that the college’s Cabinet would be matching all senior donations towards the senior gift.
“Even student donations, that don’t go directly to the fund — the way it was explained to me is that if a student that is a senior decides to donate to their sports team or their academic department, that donation will still get matched as a senior,” Holguin told The Campus after the meeting.
Holguin added that they are not yet sure how the funding will be matched — if it will be through another donor gift or from personal contributions by the Cabinet.
The goal of the emergency fund created by the senior gift is to support students in need. It will sit within the existing Gator Success Grant system, under which students can apply for funding to meet an “unanticipated need,” according to the program’s website.
However, Gator Success Grants are not guaranteed, and Holguin said that they want to meet with Dean for the Student Experience Ian Binnington to figure out exactly how the new emergency fund will work.
“Students have gotten rejected from getting funding for other things in the past, so I don’t want this to be another thing that’s established to help students and then doesn’t,” Holguin said. “Things at this school don’t always help students when they’re supposed to, and I don’t want to contribute to that.”
The emergency fund will sit within the Gator Success program in part because to stand as an independently endowed program, the senior gift would need to garner at least $50,000 in donations — an unlikely prospect, Holguin said.
However, in conversation with Sara Pineo, senior director of annual giving and alumni engagement, Holguin said they had raised the idea of parents adding to the fund and potentially reaching the endowment bar.
“Some people here have really wealthy parents, and if it could be endowed as its own thing, that’d be awesome,” Holguin said. “I don’t think it’ll be possible — but, like, it’d be so cool.”
ASG will not meet for a GA next Tuesday, March 19, due to the presidential debate. Regular business is expected to continue on Tuesday, March 26, in room 301/302 of the Henderson Campus Center.
