The Pitt News
T h e i n de p e n d e n t s t ude nt ne w spap e r of t he University of Pittsburgh | PIttnews.com | September 25, 2019 | Volume 110 | Issue 30
SGB ANNOUNCES FIRST MEETING OF CLUB NAMES TASK FORCE
THE FUTURE IS FEMALE
Emily Drzymalski Staff Writer
After announcing three weeks ago that a Student Government Board task force would be created to preserve current student organization names, President Zechariah Brown said at Tuesday’s public meeting that the task force plans to hold its first meeting this Sunday. The student task force was formed as a result of the recent changes made to SORC naming guidelines. Among the task force’s members will be SGB Vice President Anaïs Peterson, SGB member Eric Macadangdang, SGB’s Judicial Committee and its chair, Grace Nelson, as well as 13 of the hundreds of clubs that could be affected by the change. SORC announced in late August that beginning fall 2020, its registration guidelines would prohibit the names of independent student organizations from including University trademarks or wordmarks like “Pitt” and “Panther,” instead encouraging clubs to use phrases such as “at Pitt” or “at the University of Pittsburgh.” At the time the guideline changes were announced, University spokesperson Meg Ringler said the changes followed a summer audit of current SORC guidelines and student organization names that determined many student organizations were not in compliance with existing University policy. Brown, Peterson and Macadangdang met Friday with Associate Dean of Students and Director of Student Life Linda See SGB on page 4
Grace Nelson, Anaïs Peterson and Caroline Unger discuss being women in politics as a part of Civic Engagement Week. Wu Caiyi | staff photographer
PITT TO FULLY IMPLEMENT NEW ADVISING PLATFORM BY 2022
Madison Brewer For The Pitt News
Navigating university advising can be overwhelming. Pathways, Pitt’s new advising platform navigated through a smartphone app, hopes to address that. After launching a pilot phase with firstyear engineering and nursing students last fall, Pathways is due to expand to the rest of the University, including branch campuses, by 2022. The platform, which is a coordinated effort by faculty, staff and academic leadership in line with the Education Advisory Board’s Student Success Collaborative platform, is designed in two parts. It includes an advising plat-
form to handle appointments and centralize information, as well as a data analytics system for identifying trends in student behaviors and how they correlate to student success. Students interact with Pathways through an app called Navigate Student, which allows them to schedule appointments with their adviser, get directions to different buildings on campus and seek academic help. According to Amanda Brodish, the director of data analytics & Pathways for Success at Pitt, the University’s goal in implementing Pathways is to increase student success and retention rates across the University. One significant change Pathways is introducing is the ability for advisers to make notes after appointments that
can be viewed by another adviser at a different office. The number of students in the U.S. who choose to seek a second major, minor or certificate is on the rise, and those at Pitt who choose this path usually have to see more than one academic adviser. Often, students must serve as a link between two or more advisers who may not know the details of the other academic programs. Pathways is meant to bridge that gap for them. “In the past, each advising unit had its own system for housing advising notes about students,” Brodish said. “[A new adviser] would See Advising on page 4