This week’s meeting of the Georgetown University Student Association Senate included a heated contest to fill a vacant seat on the Finance and Appropriations committee, and a denouncement of Eric Cusimano’s extracurricular involvements. Here’s the wrap:

Finance and Appropriations Committee Post Filled

In perhaps the most contentious part of the meeting, Senator Ben Bold (COL’13) was selected by the full Senate to fill a vacancy on the Finance and Appropriations Committee. During his time for remarks, Bold said he had closely followed the work of the Finance and Appropriations Committee and had fully supported the funding board reform. Bold ran against Senator Matthew Ginsberg (COL’11), who said that he was suited for the job because he had an interest in financial allocations and had served as a director for the Corp.

During the debate over the confirmation, some Senators appeared to argue that Senator Bold was competent and self-motivated, and therefore should be opposed. Speaker Adam Talbot (COL ‘12) warned against a “leadership accretion” on the FinApp Committee, while FinApp Chair Nick Troiano (COL ‘11) said, “Our committee has enough ambition and self-motivated people … We have to distribute this energy to all the committees.” Ultimately, however, Bold’s attributes were deemed more of a good thing than a bad thing, and he was approved by a 10-8 vote.

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After last week’s high-stakes and controversial Georgetown University Student Association meeting, where they passed comprehensive funding reform legislation, this week’s meeting hewed closer to classic GUSA style: longer than necessary, peppered with perfunctory legislation, and largely innocuous.

The 2010 GUSA Presidential Debate

The meeting began with a discussion about the much-anticipated GUSA Presidential Debate. Speaker Adam Talbot (COL ‘12) said it will be “99 percent sure taking place on Wednesday, 89 percent sure taking place in Sellinger Lounge,” with the doubt over the location due to the fact that they have not yet reserved the Lounge. GUSA Parliamentarian Sam Ungar (COL ‘12) said that the debate would include all four presidential candidates, and feature questions from representatives of the major campus media organizations.

Public Comment Legislation

The first bill passed by the GUSA Senate changed the GUSA bylaws to require the Finance and Appropriations Committee to convene a public hearing within seven days of drafting of a budget so that representatives of advisory boards can voice concerns they may have over the budget. The bill also requires the speaker to allow for a period of public comment during the general senate meeting at which the budget will be voted on.

The bill faced essentially no opposition, mostly because it wasn’t changing the current practices. As Speaker Talbot said when he voiced his support for the bill, “The seven day waiting period is already sort of institutionalized… and I think it was sort of connoted in the wording that that time was there for individual chairs of the advisory boards to come and voice their concerns.” The bill was approved unanimously.

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GUSA’s coveted attendance trophy

Well, duh, you might say upon seeing that headline. But recall that at one point last school year, attendance at Georgetown University Student Association meetings had gotten so low that senators found themselves unable to make quorum and identified six senators with attendance so bad, they could be forcibly expelled from the Senate.

So how are they doing this year?

Much better. Speaker Adam Talbot (COL ‘12) said that attendance at most meetings has been over 85 percent, and that only one senator, cheerleader-cum-delegate Eric Cusimano (SFS ‘10) has missed enough meetings to qualify for a review by the Ways and Means Committee.

“According to my reading of the bylaws, attendance becomes a question when a Senator misses more than two consecutive meetings or more than three meetings in a given Semester,” Talbot wrote in an e-mail. “At that point I believe it’s up to the Ways and Means Committee to review whether to take action on the matter.” (Talbot confirmed his reading of the bylaws with GUSA’s parliamentarian).

Vox reviewed GUSA’s attendance sheet and found that a number of other senators do have two or three absences, but these have been excused, Talbot said. (What constitutes an “excused absence” is at the discretion of the speaker.)

With Yasmin Serrato explaining in an e-mail that one of her three recorded absences was actually a tardy, Susie Movitz is the only senator to have missed three meetings. She did not respond to a request for comment.

Photo from Flickr user photofriendly

The planned GUSA Fund would make it rain

Leaders from all six advisory boards voted against creating the GUSA Fund at a Funding Board meeting today, but the Finance and Appropriations Committee will still be able to pass the GUSA Fund through the Funding Board without their approval.

At the meeting, advisory board leaders voiced concerns that GUSA would not have the knowledge to run the GUSA Fund. They asked what kind of experience the GUSA Fund members would have, how GUSA would know if events were duplicities of events that already existed, and how the GUSA Fund would handle clubs that went over budget.

GUSA senators also learned at the meeting that the Funding Board has $51,412 in reserve, unlike $69,687 like they had previously believed. The GUSA Fund plans to draw $30,000 from that reserve, meaning the GUSA Fund will now require more than half.

GUSA Speaker Adam Talbot (COL ‘12—LXR) said the GUSA executive will be looking for GUSA fund members who can bring both funding experience and club management experience. In regards to event duplicities, Finance and Appropriations Chair Nick Troiano (COL ’11—Village A, A-D) replied that because of access to benefits, advisory boards would still need to approve official club-sponsored events before the GUSA Fund could allocate funds.

Advisory board members suggested this would make an already tedious process even more bureaucratic.

“Clubs are looking for funds, and they’re willing to jump through hoops to get it,” GUSA Chief of Staff Tim Swenson replied. “While we’re trying to make it as streamlined as possible …. this is our way of addressing that temporarily.” [Edited at 10:21 p.m.]

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Go ahead and give your GUSA Senator one—or eleven—of these!

Three hours and forty-five minutes. That’s where the second meeting of the full GUSA Senate clocked in. But the 21 Senators got the most out of their time, electing 11 people to various internal positions, including Adam Talbot (COL ‘12) as the Senate’s new Speaker and Chris Pigott (COL ‘12) as Vice Speaker.

Talbot and Pigott were both vocal freshman Senators last year and seem to be good friends. They gave each other ringing endorsements when the other stepped outside to be elected to his position. (Both races were uncontested). The personal relationships don’t end there: newly elected Parliamentarian Sam Ungar (COL ‘12) is Talbot’s roommate.

There’s no funny business going on here, though. The Senate was aware of the love triangle that now dominates its upper offices. Ungar, Pigott, and Talbot were simply the best men for the job—with the possible exception of Nick Troiano (COL ‘11), who led the Senate’s Transition Team.

Troiano has said from the beginning that he would prefer not to be Speaker, though.  When nominated by a well-meaning Senator, he respectfully declined the nomination.

Troiano did, however, score the position of Chair of the Finances and Appropriations committee, which comes with the chance to sit in on Funding Board meetings—an excellent vantage point from which to continue his public war with SAC.

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With the polls currently open, it’s time to decide who’ll be representing the student body in GUSA this year.  Of course, the vigilant voter always wants to make an informed decision, but it can be tough to know where exactly a candidate stands.

With that dilemma in mind, Vox sent out a survey to all of this year’s GUSA candidates, and we’ll be posting all the responses we received today.

In this post: At Large candidates Eric Cusimano (SFS ‘10), Chris Pigott (COL ‘12) and  Sam Ungar (COL ‘12), LXR candidate Adam Talbot (COL ‘12), and Village A (A-D) Nick Troiano (COL ‘11)!

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