Andria Wisler, currently the director of Georgetown’s Program on Justice and Peace, was chosen to become the Director of the Center for Social Justice. The position has been empty for more than two years, after the CSJ’s founder and former director Kathleen Mass Weigert left Georgetown for Loyola University of Chicago.

“I am very excited with Dr. Andria Wisler’s appointment as executive director of the Center for Social Justice,” said Ray Shiu, associate director at the CSJ. “I believe her vision and experiences will build upon CSJ’s impact in the community and on Georgetown students.”

During the transition period, the CSJ struggled to make partnerships on campus and therefore fund projects with a limited staff, the Voice reported last year. Wisler hopes to resolve these problems to better serve the CSJ’s mision.

“I am eager to build on the strengths of the CSJ as it involves a wider spectrum of students in social justice work and reach out more to faculty and alumni,” Wisler said in an email to the Vox. “I am eager to strengthen our relationships with diverse community partners.”

Shiu believes Wisler, with an experienced staff and “meaningful work,” will lead the CSJ “to its next chapter.”

“I am incredibly excited to be a part of such a great CSJ team whose work is integral to living out the social justice mission of the University,” Wisler said.

Photo from CSJ Website

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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All you do-gooder econ and finance students out there, get excited: two Georgetown students—Brian Gallagher (MSB ’10) and Ben Sacher (SFS ’12)—are starting a microfinance club.

The idea behind microfinance is that giving small loans to entrepreneurs in impoverished communities who are too poor to get traditional loans from banks.

Gallagher explained how Georgetown Microfinance would operate in an e-mail:

The club will focus on promoting microfinance and providing loans to entrepreneurs both locally and in developing countries. Our core activity is to provide micro loans to entrepreneurs by building and managing a student run evergreen micro loan fund. Once the entrepreneur?s new business is successful, they will repay the loan allowing the fund to continue to grow and positively affect an increasing number of individuals each year.

The club just got approval from the Center for Social Justice earlier this week.

Gallagher says they are planning to raise money for the fund through donations, letter writing campaigns, social events, the sale of fair trade goods on campus and other fundraisers.  He also says they will be working with other campus groups and the local branch of Grameen Bank, the bank started by Nobel Prize-winning economist and microfinance pioneer Muhammad Yunus.

It’s a wonderful day in Georgetown’s neighborhood!

While Georgetown’s town-gown relations can get pretty testy, according to researchers at Westfield State College, GU is actually one of the best neighbors in the country [PDF].  Georgetown made their “Best Neighbor” honor roll in their recent survey of colleges and universities.

The presentation, “Saviors of Our Cities: A Survey of Best College and University Civic Partnerships” emphasizes that the current state of the economy makes the relationships between universities and their surroundings even more important than ever before.

They ranked universities that they felt “demonstrated…long-standing cooperative efforts with community leaders to rehabilitate the cities around them, to influence community revitalization and cultural renewal, and to encourage economic expansion of the local economy, urban development and community service.”

While Georgetown didn’t earn a spot in the top 25, we did make the honor roll.  The honor role highlights over 100 colleges and universities that “figured prominently in lengthy cooperative efforts with community leaders to rehabilitate the cities around them.”

Georgetown’s Vice President of Student Affairs Todd Olson cited programs run through the Center for Social Justice, such as business consulting with non-profits, direct service and tutoring and working with local jails and prisons as evidence of Georgetown’s commitment to the local community.

“Across the city and region there’s a lot that we do really well,” Olson said. “There are a lot of needs in this community. We need to continue looking around and keep building those connections. We haven’t finished that work, but I believe we have a laudable track record.”

Much of Georgetown’s community service is created through student-run initiatives, such as Grassroot Hoyas, a student-founded and run group that goes into D.C. schools to promote AIDS awareness.

“What I admire most about Georgetown is its deep commitment to social justice,” Grassroot Hoyas founder Tyler Spencer said. “While so many students volunteer in amazing ways around the world, Grassroot Hoyas has helped us realize that we can and should work to solve problems that exist right in our backyard.”