{"id":104973,"date":"2026-02-04T15:23:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T15:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/104973\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T15:23:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T15:23:08","slug":"sgb-highlights-student-legal-services-pushes-for-updated-university-winter-weather-procedures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/104973\/","title":{"rendered":"SGB highlights student legal services, pushes for updated University winter weather procedures"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Student Government Board discussed access to free student legal services and its advocacy for University weather policy changes after the recent snow storm at its weekly meeting Tuesday night at Nordy\u2019s Place.<\/p>\n<p>President Marley Pinsky highlighted SGB\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sgb.pitt.edu\/student-legal-services\" class=\"external\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Student Legal Services<\/a>, through which Pitt students have access to free legal consultations.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u201cYou have access to three 20-minute legal services or legal consultations,\u201d Pinsky said.<\/p>\n<p>Pinsky said affordable legal assistance is important and that she will continue to work towards advancing these services.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou can find out from our website that [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sgb.pitt.edu\/student-legal-services\" class=\"external\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Student Legal Services<\/a>] is free and available to [students],\u201d Pinsky said. \u201cWe are trying to advocate for an expansion of those services and I will hopefully be able to share updates on that soon.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Following the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/pittsburgh\/news\/cold-temperatures-slowly-move-away-snow-pittsburgh-weather\/\" class=\"external\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">recent snowstorm and negative temperatures in Pittsburgh<\/a>, board member Andrew Elliott discussed his push for amending the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.policy.pitt.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/Policies\/01-Administrative_and_Organization\/Policy_AO_18.pdf\" class=\"external\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> university\u2019s 2019 interim policy on campus closures and class cancellation<\/a> as the effects of last week\u2019s storm <a href=\"https:\/\/pittnews.com\/article\/200137\/news\/winter-weather-creates-treacherous-sidewalk-conditions\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">remain a challenge on campus<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[We are] pushing the University to have new practices during winter weather, as it is still challenging to get around,\u201d Elliott said. \u201cI know just getting [to Nordy\u2019s Place], I have to climb through snow banks.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Board member Siya Saraswat said SGB\u2019s advocacy for amending the current cancellation policy has reached the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.provost.pitt.edu\/\" class=\"external\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Office of the Provost<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYesterday, I got confirmation that it has been brought up to the team that makes snow decisions in the Office of the Provost that the interim policy is old and due for some updates,\u201d Saraswat said.<\/p>\n<p>Elliott added that he believes updates to Pitt\u2019s current policy are necessary due to the lack of a specific plan in the current policy.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are hoping that the University will update its policies to a more permanent plan rather than the six-page determinant we are currently operating off of,\u201d said Elliot.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Board member Kylie Baker addressed the successful turnout for SGB\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/pitt.sgb\/p\/DUDrjT3DCjs\/\" class=\"external\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">second Warm Clothing Closet<\/a> on Jan. 30 and emphasized contributions from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cgs.pitt.edu\/\" class=\"external\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">College of General Studies<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe had a very successful second Warm Clothing Closet pop up, [which served] 20 students,\u201d Baker said. \u201c[We owe] a special thank you to the College of General Studies who collected donations for us.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Allocations:\u00a0\n<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/experience.pitt.edu\/msa\/home\/\" class=\"external\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Muslim Student Association<\/a> requested $5,400.00 for an on-campus program. The board amended and approved this request to $7,680.00.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pittelectricpropulsion.com\/\" class=\"external\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pittsburgh Electric Propulsion<\/a> requested $3,534.34 for a competition. The board approved this request in full.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/experience.pitt.edu\/sargamacapella\/home\/\" class=\"external\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sargam A Cappella<\/a> requested $2,199.34 for a competition. The board approved this request in full.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/experience.pitt.edu\/womenvolleyball\/home\/\" class=\"external\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Women\u2019s Volleyball Club<\/a> requested $11,579.47 for a competition. The board amended and approved this request to $8,213.13.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>    <script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Student Government Board discussed access to free student legal services and its advocacy for University weather policy changes&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":104974,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[28124,3430,73,75,74,1575,25973],"class_list":{"0":"post-104973","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh","8":"tag-cold-weather","9":"tag-lawyer","10":"tag-pittsburgh","11":"tag-pittsburgh-headlines","12":"tag-pittsburgh-news","13":"tag-sgb","14":"tag-snowstorm"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104973\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}