The next heads of the Student Government Board have plans to address affordability, student representation in the University, and ICE concerns.

Current Chief of Staff Evan Levasseur and former executive board member Neal Gupta were elected president and vice president, respectively, for the 2026-27 Student Government Board on Tuesday. Levasseur and Gupta ran unopposed on the executive ticket. Here’s what they have in store for next year.

Amid an increase in ICE presence across U.S. cities, one of Levasseur’s top priorities is ensuring students are educated and protected if an ICE agent comes to campus. Pittsburgh community organizations have increased their outreach to meet the growing fear of ICE among immigrant communities.

“We want to make sure that we can create an environment that’s safe for [students] — where they can just be able to go to school and not have to worry about any external fears or threats for their safety on our campus,” Levasseur said.

SGB recently met with the Office of Public Safety and Pitt Police about using ENS to notify students and campus employees of a potential ICE presence in Oakland and learned they cannot use the ENS system for this purpose. Levasseur said they are looking for “alternative routes” and that SGB representatives have a meeting tomorrow with a different Pitt safety office.

“We’re meeting tomorrow to talk about what the policy is and the training the officers and security guards have gone through for if an ICE agent or federal agent comes to the dorms,” Levasseur said. “What is the protocol going to be? Are they just going to let the agent in, are they going to actually refuse entry to the agent?”

For next year, Levasseur said he hopes to hold a “know your rights” town hall to educate students on the issue.

“Especially in the fall when there’s new students on campus or maybe new concerns — any way that we can continue to educate students on their rights and what to do if ICE comes to campus,” Levasseur said.

Levasseur and Gupta will also work on strengthening academic freedom next year, considering Pitt’s low ranking from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression’s report released in October. 

Gupta referenced the University’s sanction of Students for Justice in Palestine last year, after a study-in held at Hillman Library. The ACLU filed a lawsuit against Pitt and won in court.

“We’ve seen a lot of infringement on the administration’s part on students’ rights,” Gupta said. “[We want to] make sure that students know they’re protected, that they know they can exercise these rights without fear of retaliation from administration or anyone else on campus.”

Levasseur also wants to continue current president Marley Pinsky’s advocacy for a student voting member of the Board of Trustees. SGB members currently can sit in on Board meetings, but cannot vote on measures.

“There’s a lot more work that’s going to have to be done, and I doubt it’ll be finished by the time that we’re finished with office next year, but it’s a conversation that we really want to continue pushing for,” Levasseur said. “It’s really important that a student has a voice on [the Board] because the decisions that they make are the ones that impact us the most.”

Levasseur said his prime goal of instituting a student voting member is having a student opinion on tuition rates.

“We don’t really have any say over our tuition, and it continues to rise and rise, and it’s extremely frustrating for us as students,” Levasseur said. “We want to have some way to advocate and voice our opinions.”

Levasseur and Gupta will also work to restructure allocations for student organizations, after SGB’s referendum on raising the Student Activity Fee by $25 passed on Tuesday night. Levasseur said that because the rate has remained $100 for the past 10 years, SGB has “struggled to work within the budgets.” 

“Prices in general have gone up a lot, and we also have more student organizations that are requesting funding, so we’ve really struggled internally,” Levasseur said. “We want to make sure that we have enough funding to support the 800-plus student organizations that we have on campus, and also the formula groups that get a percentage of the Student Activity Fees.”

One of Gupta’s initiatives is to hear more student voices on housing issues on campus, in light of Pitt significantly increasing its enrollment leading to some students living in hotels and fraternity complexes.

“I think a big change I saw, especially from my freshman year, is first-year students being housed in hotels and off-campus apartments and kind of being shunned away from main campus,” Gupta said. “We’re making sure the University is keeping up with the number of students they’re admitting so there’s no problems with students having a life on campus and having a struggle to transition to college.”

Levasseur and Gupta’s campaign slogan was “Roc with Evan and Neal,” after the name of the Pitt Panther mascot. Gupta said he wants students to feel connected to them and know that their job is to serve them.

“We’re not here to be this shunned away organization that hides in the WPU,” Gupta said. “We want to be with the community and make sure we’re exercising and amplifying their voices.“