Articles tagged: Saxa Politica

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Saxa Politica: Coulter incites criticism

Last week, the announcement that the Georgetown University College Republicans and the Georgetown University Lecture Fund was bringing conservative pundit and commentator Ann Coulter to Georgetown set off a firestorm of criticism from students.

By October 20, 2011

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Saxa Politica: Illegitimate legislators

This week the Georgetown University Student Association swore in the 27 newly elected student senators elected to serve their fellow classmates for the coming year. Their friends and their fellow residents have likely congratulated them for their victories. But are congratulations truly in order after this election? The answer is both yes and no.

By October 6, 2011

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Saxa Politica: Hold GUSA to promises

It’s that time of year again, when we elect a number of our fellow classmates to senatorship in the Georgetown University Student Association. As regular as the yearly elections are, so are the outlandish promises made by candidates as they vie for the few votes necessary to win (one student only had to garner four votes to win one of last year’s GUSA Senate elections).

By September 22, 2011

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Saxa Politica: Let students serve students

The Healy Pub proposal took a major hit this past week following the Voice and The Hoya’s biannual interview with University President John DeGioia and Vice President for Student Affairs Todd Olson. Despite meetings conducted by the Georgetown Univerity Student Associations’s Finance and Appropriations Committee that solidified the design and space for the Healy Pub, DeGioia and Olson seemed to indicate that the plan to bring back the pub was most likely dead on arrival.

By September 8, 2011

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Saxa Politica: Freedom of speech not a trivial pursuit

The first edition of “What sucks: Tombs trivia’s most offensive team names” on Vox Populi, the Voice’s blog, provoked a large outcry of responses both denouncing and defending the names. Many commenters called for the Tombs to ban team names with jokes about sexual assault, sexual orientation, or natural disasters, among other potentially offensive topics.

By April 28, 2011

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Saxa Politica: Keep $3.4 million SAFE

With $3.4 million of student money weighing on their minds, it’s hard to envy the members of the Student Activities Fee Endowment commission.

By April 7, 2011

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Saxa Politica: Let students decide funding

Next week, the Georgetown University Student Association will vote in the student activities fee budget, concluding a months-long process that determines how to dole out $800,000 in club funding. Under the present model, GUSA is the only body with power over the budget, and GUSA senators ultimately make subjective decisions as to what constitutes an important contribution to student life.

By March 24, 2011

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Saxa Politica: Back to the GUSA future

Georgetown University Student Association presidents only occupy their post for one or two years, making it difficult for them to leave a mark on student life or deliver on optimistic campaign promises. The incoming GUSA executive, Mike Meaney (SFS ’12) and Greg Laverriere (COL ’12), would do well to heed the words of their predecessors—eschew flashy plans for those that will leave positive impacts.

By March 3, 2011

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Saxa Politica: A GUSA-shaped activism hole

Student government at Georgetown was once a forum for social change; now the extent of its activism is to reorganize how it doles out money to clubs. Although the Georgetown... Read more

By February 17, 2011

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Saxa Politica: A bright future for GUSA?

Too often, student government can devolve into self-promotion with little substantive achievement. But having voted in Student Activities Fee Endowment reform and launched a new, usable website last semester, the Georgetown University Student Association looks poised for a strong semester. If last Sunday’s meeting is any indication of the sessions to come, the Senate appears to be maintaining its momentum with a set of initiatives that will make important contributions to student life.

By February 3, 2011

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Saxa Politica: Divide and conquer ANC 2E

Most students know Georgetown’s Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners as the people who shutdown late-night haven Philly Pizza. This incident shows that the ANC has wider powers than its “advisory” moniker might suggest, and their authority touches many aspects of student life. At the same time, however, the current composition of the commission undercuts the student voice.

By January 20, 2011

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Saxa Politica: Democracy inaction?

Dec. 7 is D-Day for the Georgetown University Student Association. On Tuesday, students will vote on the GUSA Finance and Appropriation Committee’s pet project: Student Activities Fee Endowment reform, or, in Georgetown’s tradition.

By December 2, 2010

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Saxa Politica: No place like home

The Saturday morning of Parent’s Weekend, parents and their groggy sophomores filed into Gaston Hall to hear a panel. The discussion on study abroad, which veered off on strange tangents about various disaster scenarios

By November 11, 2010

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Saxa Politica: If I had $1.9 million…

Last fall, some Georgetown University Student Association senators made an alarming discovery: they were short an expected $8.2 million in student funds. Every year, students pay a $100 Student Activities Fee, but we only use half of it every year to provide approximately $315,000 in club funding. Ever since the student activity fee was created in 2001, the other half of the fee has gone into the Georgetown Student Activities Fee Endowment, a section of the larger University endowment.

By October 28, 2010

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Saxa Politica: Georgetown students need to work together

The closer we get to the midterms, the less Democrats and Republicans can agree on. The Republicans are the party of no; the Democrats are the party of “maybe, after I’m reelected.” National leaders could use a lesson from our peers in the Georgetown University College Democrats, the Georgetown University College Republicans.

By October 14, 2010

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Saxa Politica: Git’ er done, GUSA

It’s a time-honored tradition for Georgetown University Student Association senate candidates—mostly well-meaning freshmen—to promise us better food at Leo’s and greater access to wireless Internet. But students who have been at Georgetown more than a month know that these issues are thornier, more bureaucratic, and more infuriating.

By September 30, 2010

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Saxa Politica: Doomed to repeat

Flipping through old Voice archives was enough to give me déjà vu. “SAC continues freeze of GUSA funds,” March 4, 1999. “Gay activists press demands,” Feb. 13, 1973. “Residents say GU must justify higher enrollment,” Nov. 11, 1999. Reading through archives, it is increasingly apparent that we’ve been fighting the same battles for decades. Georgetown University Student Association versus Student Activities Commission. Students versus neighbors. Activists versus the administration. University Information Services versus technology.

By September 16, 2010

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Saxa Politica: GUSA needs perspectives

At the Voice, we have a saying about Georgetown University Student Association presidential elections: “The most articulate bro always wins.”

By September 2, 2010

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Saxa Politica: When Club Lau just won’t do

Suggesting new facilities for Georgetown’s 2010 Campus Plan is like playing the world’s most infuriating game of Tetris. Anyone walking around campus can see that the University has tried to fit a lot into a small space.

By April 29, 2010

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Saxa Politica: Immoral investments

There’s a new group of student activists at Georgetown and their demands—in the name of human rights and international law—deserve to be taken seriously. Georgetown, Divest! is part of a growing movement of students across the U.S. demanding that their universities divest from corporations that profit from violations of human rights and international law in Israel and the Palestinian territories.

By April 15, 2010