When Calen Angert (MSB `11) and Jason Kluger (MSB `11) are sworn in as Student Association President and Vice President, they’ll have a lot on their plate. They’ve promised to improve career services, explore new measures for student safety, allocate $30,000 of the GUSA executive branch budget to student clubs, and build a better working relationship with the Student Commission for Unity. Some of these things will be tougher to accomplish than others, but having the support of the various clubs and students they’ll need to work with will make any issue easier for Angert and Kluger to tackle.
Courting the student body is especially important for Angert and Kluger since they billed themselves as GUSA insiders with close ties to the current administration during the campaign. Although they may not deserve it, Angert and Kluger risk guilt by association because of their close ties with outgoing President Pat Dowd (SFS ’09). Though he accomplished a great deal during his tenure, Dowd’s unpopularity often rivaled his effectiveness. A September forum which the leaders and members of many student clubs attended revealed that campus groups perceived Dowd’s administration as deaf to several issues important to students. Coupled with his Vice President James Kelly’s (COL `09) refusal to apologize for remarks about the establishment of the LGBTQ Center which offended many students, Dowd’s administration often emanated elitism.
To make clear that theirs will be a different sort of GUSA executive, Angert and Kluger would do well to regularly host forums similar to the one Dowd held in September and congress with student clubs who have valuable input on particular issues. Angert’s administration should keep the student body apprised of their progress in emails and openly invite the input of the student body as they begin to tackle a new project—not after the fact. Repairing GUSA’s fraught relationship with SCUnity, for example, will require that Angert and Kluger to include clubs who engage regularly with questions of diversity and community at Georgetown. As SCUnity deals in issues that are significant, complicated, and emotional, Angert and Kluger should be courting the student body at large for input on the SCU’s recommendations.
A clear, early rejection of the all-too-often insular m.o. of the Dowd administration would pave the way for a smooth transition between administrations and make it easier for Angert and Kluger to accomplish the things they want to. After all, it’s all about being popular.
