In an 11th hour effort to sink The Yard referendum, members of the Georgetown University Student Association convened late Sunday night to draft and send out e-mails to students condemning the attempts to create a new undergraduate governing body. The various e-mails, which went out to almost every student University-wide, all used varying language but contained the same message: Don’t vote for the Yard.
The e-mails were a clear abuse of GUSA’s power. For the GUSA leadership to issue statements condemning a referendum which has reached the ballot through the appropriate GUSA channels violates the spirit of student democracy.
GUSA president Ryan DuBose (CAS ‘02) and other GUSA members said they were simply providing relevant information on the issue. But this simply wasn’t true. Dubose, for instance, titled his own e-mail which went out to seniors, “A special request … ” and specifically told them: “Vote ‘No’ to the Yard.” Just as GUSA shouldn’t take it upon itself to tell students which way to vote in presidential elections, the GUSA leadership shouldn’t have so clearly attempted to influence public opinion in a a campus-wide referendum.
GUSA members could make the case that by acting in defense of their system, they are using GUSA resources in a wholly appropriate manner. But overt attempts to defeat The Yard referendum were not an appropriate way of exercising their power. This was a democratic referendum posed to students, to which students should respond in a balanced, thoughtful manner. While the student association’s existence was in jeopardy, the issue was still one of student democracy. GUSA has to defend that democracy, even if that democracy ultimately leads to the very demise of the student association.
GUSA members might also claim that because Vote Yard President Peter Freeman (SFS ‘02) sent out a counter-e-mail that same night, this pardons their own actions. But Freeman’s e-mail was a purely reactionary move, and carried none of the “official” aura of an e-mail from GUSA leaders.
If GUSA members had wished to campaign actively against The Yard referendum, they should have done so through an organization such as Students Against The Yard. Instead, they wrote to students directly. The sophomore, junior and senior classes received e-mails from their GUSA representatives and Dubose, respectively. Senior Class Committee Chair and co-founder of Students against The Yard Aaron Polkey (CAS ‘02) e-mailed the first-year class. These e-mail lists were compiled using on-hand GUSA lists.
The GUSA bylaws regarding campus-wide referendums are vague and give the Election Commissioner no control over flyers, e-mails or other campaign materials. These election bylaws should be tightened so that referendums function just like regular elections, not free-for-alls. Ideally, supporters of each side would be given 100 words to make their case in an officially sanctioned e-mail. At the very least, referendums need more structure. The student association leadership, meanwhile, has to act more responsibly. In the face of heavy criticism, the student association has shown itself unwilling to trust the student body.
