Our time on the Hilltop has been characterized by a growing rift between the essential components of our community. Students have become increasingly divided, administrators have become increasingly subservient to outside parties and neglectful of the student body they exist to serve. GUSA exists to unite students and advocate on their behalf, drawing from their ideas, to effect change at the administrative level. But when GUSA itself becomes disconnected from its constituents, it has failed in its purpose. Our campaign is aimed at bridging these divides: between students; between students and administrators; and most pressingly, between GUSA and the students it represents.
As a deputy chief of staff for the current GUSA executive, Trevor has a strong record of connecting student groups with the administrative resources they need to accomplish their goals. GUSA need not be a bureaucratic middleman between students and administrators—rather, it directly serves students by bringing together student experts and advocates and the administrators who can serve their purposes.
We have drawn criticism over the last two weeks for our 26-page platform. Its length is entirely due to our drive to truly represent students, and in it we hold ourselves to a concrete timeline. We approached hundreds of student leaders from all over campus, among them cultural groups, athletic teams, arts organizations, and unrecognized clubs. Their expertise formed the bulk of our platform. We are confident that our platform can be accomplished through deep and intentional collaboration with the student groups who helped write it.
Among the many student experts we consulted, cultural groups face a particularly deep disconnect from the administration. Their work to create social change at Georgetown—notably, #BBGU and related Twitter campaigns, the donation of Rangila funds to international charities, and the recent East Coast Asian American Student Union Conference—is admirable and essential in a campus community struggling to combat deep cultural divides and the silencing of minority voices. As evidenced by President DeGioia’s recent assertion that he is “not aware of institutional oppression,” the administration is shockingly disconnected from student advocacy.
The Student of Color Alliance is an invaluable funding body, but as an arm of the University-run Center for Multicultural Equity and Access, its advocacy capacity is limited, and it does little to pursue some of the primary administrative policy changes that would strengthen the position of cultural groups.
Our Multicultural Council, designed in collaboration with dozens of campus cultural groups, will fill these needs. One year ago, GUSA executive candidates Shavonnia Corbin-Johnson and Joe Vandegriff and their campaign manager, Neil Noronha, sought to create an institutional student forum that would address problems, foster relationships and friendships, and streamline communication between GUSA and traditionally neglected cultural groups.
As Noronha developed the idea further in the year after that ticket’s loss, we approached him to provide the resources, labor, and spotlight of an executive campaign that would allow the initiative to gain traction across Georgetown. A dedicated and experienced team consisting of Noronha, Eng Gin Moe, Rodrigo Castellanos, and Adan Gonzalez developed a formal pitch that they presented to each cultural club at the start of 2014. Though the council is certainly not perfect, the response was overwhelmingly appreciative of the attempt to bring to light conversations that had been swept under the rug.
Primarily, the Multicultural Council provides network access both to the rest of campus and within the diversity community. Campus leaders, representing their groups as well as those of their region, will opt in to participate in workshops that allow them the opportunity to seek co-sponsorships, raise awareness of particular issues they face, and promote their own programming. The council’s other central role is to collaborate on and offer strategic policy recommendations to the GUSA executive, thereby giving too-often overlooked student communities a voice in the creation and modification of university policy.
Rather than a showy campaign promise, this initiative is being showcased during the election to bring attention to problems in Georgetown’s multicultural community. No matter the outcome of this election, we will pursue the Multicultural Council in GUSA under the direction and support of the groups it is intended to serve.
Born out of experience in and partnership with cultural groups at Georgetown, the Multicultural Council will be a groundbreaking advocacy and collaboration tool for student groups that are too often silenced. We have made this initiative central to our platform and plan to pursue its implementation from day one. It is just one arm of our streamlined effort to ensure that GUSA truly represents the voices and passions of the student body.
