USG hosts Student Forum

A new resolution to enforce student club leaders' attendance at legislative body meetings for financial and organizational matters, previously proposed by senior resident representative Daniel Bellavance, was passed by USG at the beginning of last week's meeting.

A representative of an organization must be present during a proceeding requiring a vote, such as organizational recognition or allocation of funds. Failure to be present will result in a table of the vote. If a vote is not held 21 days from the time it was first brought to the floor, the organization will need to re-apply for their recognition or funding.

Also discussed at both the meeting and Student Forum last week was the number of bus passes USG would be able to purchase next year.

Based on an allotment of $7,020 a month, USG would purchase 250 Zone 1 monthly passes, 35 Zone 2 monthly and five Zone 3 passes as well as 208 Zone 1 ticket booklets, 50 Zone 2 booklets and five zone 3 booklets. Everything would be discounted at 25 percent.

To avoid misuse of the bus pass subsidy, representatives discussed capping students to two monthly booklets or one monthly pass.

"It's a shame that we've had people abuse the system and take advantage of it," Katrina Kilgore, a business management major, said during the Student Forum.

These figures are subject to change and have not officially been voted into effect.

"Next semester is brand new, everything is going to be full-scale again," Vice President Carl Zappa said.

There may be an additional $2,000 to $3,000 available in the fall for USG to spend on bus passes.

A representative from the John P. Harris Society was then given floor time to discuss problems the group has during its screenings.

"We can't run the GRW system, and the workers who do come and are paid to be there leave during the screenings. If we have a problem we have to call them and they're on the other half of campus," Andrew Daub, a sophomore cinema and digital arts major, said.

The equipment was replaced with a newer system this summer, yet students are currently not allowed to be trained on how to use it.

"It's a remote control. You put the DVD in there and it plays. It's like your home system, except a lot more expensive," Daub said.

Daub also said the club has difficulties reserving the GRW theater, and he wants more scheduling flexibility.

Treasurer Sidnie Stevens then presented an academic plagiarism policy for the whole school that was proposed by the student affairs committee.

"They are trying to set up a system where if you plagiarize in one class, it gets reported to the Registrar," Stevens said.

The policy is still in the preliminary stages and the Provost hopes to have it established next year.

Students with input can contact Heather Starr Fielder, journalism and mass communications assistant professor at hstarr@pointpark.edu

On Monday, April 7 USG held a Student Forum. The first half of the forum was given to the WTW architects to discuss the master space plan.

Architects Glen Schultz and Derek Eversman presented projections for Point Park University's campus. The full scope of the plan would go into effect within six to seven years. The two main purposes of the Master Space Plan are to identify where things go and to create a vision of what the campus should look like.

The top three ideas people have reacted to thus far have been student unions, student activity or fitness center and a stronger sense of place, Schultz said.

WTW compared where the different schools were located now to how they could be organized in the future. They also discussed the development of a "Wood Street Corridor" as a focal point for circulation of students. The corridor would lead to a potential green space being planned as a public ground project by the City of Pittsburgh along the Mon Wharf.

Another key to the plan would be the organization of each school within the university.

"Each program doesn't have a center, You never really know where you're going." Eversman said.

A diagram of the campus in the future placed the school of arts and sciences in Academic Hall, the school of business in the West Penn Building, COPA in both the new dance building and the area next to the University Center and a school of journalism and mass communication in the University Center.

Housing and student centers would be spread throughout the middle of the campus. New housing would add 200 to 400 more beds on top of the new apartments that will provide 94 new beds this coming fall, and up to 140 more by the following fall.

Eversman said a new theater or performing arts center would mostly likely be established on Forbes Avenue. This would bring all of Point Park's buildings Downtown and could potentially eliminate the need for shuttles to and from Oakland.

"If the Playhouse was down here, I would live down here all four years," Adam Sapienza, junior theater major, said.

Students reacted most to the placement of a journalism and mass communication school next to COPA, in particular the cinema and digital arts department. Their biggest concern was that separate studios should be built for broadcasting and cinema and digital arts.

"I know right now we're having to share the studio with the journalism and mass communication department and it's a very small studio in terms of if you want to do things of cinematic proportions," Frank Falotico, senior cinema and digital arts major, said.

Cinema and digital arts students typically need a larger, open space on which to build a set, while broadcasting students utilize a television set, even though each programs use similar software and equipment.

"It's really hard to be creative when there are so many different people with so many different ideas trying to work in the same exact space," Emily Berk, freshman broadcasting major, said.