With this year’s Georgetown University Student Association executive election campaigns gearing up to officially begin on Feb. 5, it is time for voters and presidential hopefuls to consider the issues that will form the crux of the next administration.
Building upon the positive legacies of GUSA President Trevor Tezel (SFS ’15) and Vice President Omika Jikaria (SFS ’15), next year’s executive team should break new ground in advocacy for student workers, redefine the role of the Multicultural Council, and, most importantly, rally concern and attention towards the university’s next Campus Plan.
A winning campaign should further develop GUSA’s new Office of the Student Worker Advocate. The university has had a poor track record in the treatment of student workers. It has failed to pay Residential Hall Office workers on time and allegations of unfair hiring processes, and Title IX violations suffered by residential assistants surfaced as recently as last November. Continuing to build upon the office’s advocacy network will provide a crucial pillar of support to student employees, who deserve high standards of accountability from the university as an employer and a Jesuit institution.
The creation of the Multicultural Council was perhaps one of the most memorable accomplishments of Tezel and Jikaria’s administration. According to its mission statement, the council seeks “to create a constant and direct line of communication between cultural groups and the GUSA executive as well as to promote cross-cultural interactions.” However, to date, its many high-profile meetings and town halls have achieved few results. A few intermittent food tastings and infrequent Facebook status updates mark the council’s most public contributions to conversations on diversity. A winning election platform should aim to push the Multicultural Council to its full potential and use it to fulfill the need for real, substantive improvements towards diversity on campus.
The university is currently working with neighborhood representatives to create the 2018-2038 campus plan through the Georgetown Community Partnership, which only has one student, the GUSA president. Considering the 2010 campus plan’s adverse effects on the daily lives of students and campus employees, it is absolutely essential for students to take on a serious role at the negotiation table for the next stage in the master planning process. The successful candidates will vow to fight for more student awareness and representation in university dealings with the neighborhood. They will promise not to allow the university and Georgetown’s neighbors to ignore students’ interests, as was the case in the creation of the 2010 plan.
GUSA and the GUSA executive serve as primary vehicles of student advocacy. When selecting the next GUSA executive, voters must decide which ticket addresses the issues that matter to students and will work tirelessly to give students a voice on campus.
