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T h e i n d e p e n d e n t s tudent newspaper of the University of Pittsburgh | PIttnews.com | february 26, 2020 | Volume 110 | Issue 229
PITT DAY OF GIVING RAISES $1.6 MILLION, DOWN 61% Ashton Crawley Staff Writer
The fourth annual Pitt Day of Giving — a 24hour fundraising initiative — took place on Tuesday. This year’s PDoG raised $1,651,212 — which is down about 61% from last year’s event. But the total number of donors this year was 7,630 — a 20% increase from last year’s 6,345. Donors came from all 50 states and six continents. “The @PittTweet community was out in full force and we couldn’t be more happy,” Pitt’s Alumni Association tweeted at midnight on Wednesday. “Thank you to everyone who participated, it was an amazing day!” Groups and individuals in the Pitt community spent the day encouraging alumni and other supporters to donate to their initiatives via social media. Anyone could donate to organizations and funds in six main competition categories — Schools and Colleges, Regional Campuses, Places, Experiences & More, Athletics, Student Organizations and Areas of Greatest Priority — throughout the day of the event. Schools and Colleges consists of schools within the University such as Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences and Pitt Law. Pitt Bradford, Johnstown and Greensburg make up the Regional Campus category, whereas last year they participated in the Schools and Colleges category. Places, Experiences & More includes various organizations affiliated with the University, such as Student Affairs and the Falk Laboratory School. The Athletics category included funds such as the University Band Fund and the Pitt Cheer, Dance & Mascot Championship Fund. Areas of Greatest Priority category includes the General Scholarship Fund, the Pitt Fund and Panthers Forward. Student Organizations consists of various student groups across campus, including Club Cross Country and Best Buddies.
Eric Macadangdang celebrates with his slate and supporters after winning the SGB presidential election on Tuesday night. Thomas Yang | assistant visual editor
ERIC MACADANGDANG WINS SGB PRESIDENCY Anushay Chaudhry and Benjamin Nigrosh The Pitt News Staff
Eric Macadangdang will serve as president of Pitt’s Student Government Board during the 2020-21 school year, after narrowly winning Tuesday’s elections against Ravi Gandhi with 50.2% of the vote — a margin of 22 votes. “This election campaign allowed me to meet a lot of great people,” Macadangdang said. “I can’t wait to spend the next year advocating for them.” In total, 4,604 students, or about 24% of the undergraduate student population, voted in Tuesday’s election, compared to last year’s turnout of 3,394 See PDOG on page 3 student voters, or about 18% of the un-
dergraduate student population. Macadangdang, a current SGB member who ran on the Voices slate, focused his platform on opening communication between students and SGB through a campus-wide survey that would provide the board with student opinions from across campus. [Read: Your guide to the 2020 SGB elections] He also said he hopes to expand debt-relief programs for students like Panthers Forward. He will be joined on the board by fellow slate members Kathryn Fleisher, Annalise Abraham and Ben King. Gandhi said running for president was “really fun and an awesome learn-
ing experience,” and feels thankful for all of the work his running mates put into the campaign. “The fact that we got so much turnout is incredible,” Gandhi said. “Even before running, I knew Eric would have done a great job as president, regardless.” Victor So, Katie Richmond and Victoria Chuah from Your slate will join the board, even though Gandhi, their presidential candidate, did not win the presidency. Tyler Viljaste of the Launch slate will also join the board. Cedric Humphrey, the other half of the Launch slate, will serve as executive vice president next academic year, after See SGB on page 2