At their final meeting as the Georgetown University Student Association’s president and vice president, Ryan DuBose (CAS ‘02) and Brian Walsh (CAS ‘02) said that increased communication between GUSA and the student body as a whole should be a goal of the new GUSA executives in the coming year. At Tuesday’s meeting, DuBose and Walsh gave a detailed end of the year report summarizing GUSA’s goals and accomplishments over the past year.
DuBose and Walsh said in a letter to the members of the Georgetown community that they felt privileged to serve the student body. Both DuBose and Walsh said that their end of the year report showed that it has been “a very productive and successful year.”
They said that they were very pleased with their success in working with student organizations and administrators throughout the year, but added that communication between GUSA and the student body as a whole needs improvement.
“GUSA does not exist in a vacuum apart from the rest of the University,” DuBose and Walsh said. They said that a goal for the new GUSA leadership should be “an overall effort to increase the presence and the connection of the Student Association with the student body.”
DuBose and Walsh also recommended improved relations between the student association and student clubs. They said they felt that the GUSA Club Union has been very successful in keeping direct communication with clubs, but that better club representation in GUSA is still necessary.
DuBose and Walsh said that they were also very pleased with the high student involvement at Georgetown. They said that the 9 percent increase in voter turnout for the recent GUSA presidential election reflects a student body that is interested in student government and the issues on which it works.
DuBose and Walsh said that the improvements to the GUSA office in the Leavey Center have made the office more functional and efficient. They advocated the use of the GUSA office as a “command center” for students in the future, citing its central location on campus as ideal for a resource center for student concerns.
The detailed end of the year report highlighted some of what DuBose and Walsh felt were GUSA’s particularly significant accomplishments under their leadership. Such accomplishments included GUSA’s response to the Sept. 11 attacks and the introduction of the Georgetown One Book. After the attacks of Sept. 11, GUSA organized various prayer services, vigils and donation drives raising over $7,000 for the American Red Cross. The Georgetown One Book, according to DuBose and Walsh, has proved to be a popular reference for new students, with over 5,500 copies delivered throughout the year.
DuBose and Walsh said that they are still planning to actively participate in GUSA for the remainder of the year. They said they plan on finishing their on-going project to get permanent technological equipment and computer terminals in Sellinger Lounge.
Tuesday’s GUSA meeting concluded with the transfer of power from DuBose and Walsh to new student body President Kaydee Bridges (SFS ‘03) and Vice President Mason Ayer (SFS ‘03). The new executives were officially sworn in on Tuesday.
