SGU helps club leaders move toward collaboration

This Sunday, the newly created Student Group Union will have its first meeting in Copley Formal Lounge. Approximately 50 student groups have already signed on to be part of the group, and organizers hope that new groups will come and formalize their commitment to the SGU at the meeting.

Created in response to longstanding frustrations with the way money is allocated to student clubs, the 10 students behind SGU hope to create a network for communication between club leaders. They say that many student groups work together, but do not have a readily available way to communicate with each other.
“Right now, if you want to put a SAC group in contact with a Performing Arts group, it’s hard to do unless you know someone who works there,” steering committee member Emma Green (COL ’12) said. “There is no formalized mechanism by which they can collaborate.”

At the first SGU meeting, one steering committee member will be sitting at each table to speak to students about student group concerns and ideas about how to foster communication.

“The kick-off [this Sunday] is aimed at all students to come together and talk about what kind of collaboration they’d like to see over the next year,” Eitan Paul (SFS ’12), a co-chair of the SGU steering committee, said.

The Executive Committee of SGU will be comprised of students from the five advisory boards at Georgetown—Club Sports, Center for Social Justice, Media Board, SAC, and Performing Arts Advisory Council—who have knowledge about the institutional and bureaucratic culture at Georgetown. Each advisory board would elect one of their representatives to be a part of the Executive Committee, and these representatives would meet twice each month to discuss issues that come up for their board. General student groups would be required to elect a representative to attend a monthly general body meeting.

Steering committee members have been making an effort to reach out to a more diverse array of leaders on campus over the past few weeks.

“It’s very important that all groups can feel like they can be a part of this,” Green said. “It’s not something people have to give their time to or make a huge commitment to; it’s an asset or resource that people can tap their time into, especially for people we haven’t reached out to yet. We’re trying to make a huge collaborative effort out of this.”

However, SGU steering committee members do not expect that all 200 student groups will become involved with SGU at the beginning. “Going forward, we do hope that we will have the vast majority of student groups represented,” Paul said. “It’s a free service. . . and it will be a lot easier for students to present issues if they don’t have the time or have a particular [concern]. SGU can do it for them.”

Paul invited Aman Shahi (COL ’13), co-captain of GU Jawani, to join the steering committee for the Performing Arts group. He mentioned competition among performing groups for reserving rehearsal space and said SGU can potentially put these groups in contact and petition to SAC for them on any issues they have.

However, SGU steering committee members emphasize movement away from advocacy. “Having each other’s contact information will allow students to share calendars and talk informally about when it’s smart to book the rehearsal space,” Shahi said, adding that he views the group as a way to “facilitate discussion outside the bureaucratic structure.”

Green said the utility of SGU in the future is very clear. “It just makes sense to have a way for all these different leaders who are doing different things but are ultimately working to make Georgetown a more vibrant community to communicate,” said Green. “It makes sense for all of them to be in contact.”

Although GUSA members Greg Lavarriere (COL ‘12) and Bridget Power (COL ‘12) assisted in the creation of the group, Green said GUSA is merely an SGU constituent, and would get one vote just like every other group.

“The important thing to note is that this is not another activity nor is it student governance. We are not seeking at all to replace GUSA,” Green said.

When asked why GUSA hasn’t taken on the effort itself, Laverriere said there was an important distinction.

“While GUSA is tasked with representing the average student, this is meant to represent the average student group,” he said. “It can’t be any one student organization facilitating this. GUSA may want to advocate for a change, but other students on campus might be advocating for the same change.”