SAC advisor and Deputy Director of Student Programs Bill McCoy will be leaving Georgetown in August, according to an announcement from the University’s Center for Student Programs.

In a phone call, McCoy confirmed to Vox that he would be leaving Georgetown for a position at Bucknell university. His departure was announced along with several other changes to CSP staff, including the hiring of Lauren Gagliardi as the center’s new Programs Coordinator.

McCoy’s departure concludes a somewhat tumultuous year for the Student Activities Commission, with a number of student organizations under the SAC umbrella protesting the manner in which events must be approved by the organization. Under the current guidelines, all events hosted by SAC groups – even those which require no funding from the University – must be submitted in a semester-long programming arc and individually approved.

After dozens of student groups signed two open letters to the Commission protesting the guidelines and the clubs’ lack of input in the approval process, SAC adopted several changes to its constitution creating an appeals process for rejected programming arcs and a mechanism to waive funding guidelines on an individual basis. The Commission also held several town hall meetings with club leaders, who used the opportunity to voice frustrations over perceived inequities in the funding process.

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For this year’s March Madness, Vox has assembled the most eclectic group of tournament brackets Georgetown’s ever seen. Famous and “famous” Hoyas alike opted to fill out a bracket for our pool—and while characters like President John DeGioia, Provost Jim O’Donnell, and Professor Madeleine Albright declined to participate, don’t follow basketball very closely, and didn’t respond, respectively, we’re pumped to share the responses we did get.

Our pool pits alums like First Lady of South Carolina Jenny Sanford (MSB ’84), comedian Mike Birbiglia (COL ’00), and Washington City Paper’s Mike DeBonis (COL ’04), against professor Sen. Chuck Hagel, Dean of the College Chester Gillis, and Director of Student Programs Erika Cohen-Derr.

Students Nick Troiano (COL ’11) of GUSA, Corp CEO Brad Glasser (COL ’11), and ANC Commissioner Aaron Golds (COL ’11) are playing, as are CAG President Jennifer Altemus (COL ’88), Casual Hoya, and nodak89 (Chris Tiongson (COL ’89)), of musical fame.

There’s no prize for winning—just bragging rights. The entries are below, and you can click each image to make it bigger.

Jenny Sanford

Sanford has Kentucky winning it all. In her bracket, Georgetown loses to Ohio State in the Sweet Sixteen.

Chuck Hagel

Hagel has Kansas beating Georgetown in the Elite Eight. But there’s no shame in being beaten by the best, right?

Mike Birbiglia

Birbiglia’s true blue. He’s got Georgetown going all the way, beating Kentucky in the championship game.

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Here’s the update on Vice Speaker Brian Wood’s (COL ’09) unexpected decision to resign from GUSA that we reported on last week:

Wood graduated from the College early, in December. In an email to the Senate on Friday, he wrote that when he ran for the position he “[intended] to serve for the entire year.” (Q: why would you want to be on GUSA after you graduate? A: apparently Wood is still working and volunteering in the area … and must really have a thing for student government.)

He even looked through the GUSA by-laws, bless his heart, and talked to Director of Student Programs Erika Cohen-Derr. At the time, she gave him the go-ahead to serve for the entire year.

Wood says that was a misunderstanding. He and Cohen-Derr sparred over the issue early last week. “I presented her my arguments for why I should be allowed to continue to serve,” he wrote in the email.  He said Cohen-Derr linked her change of heart to the University’s access to benefits policy, and he provided the relevant section in the email:

“A group must have a minimum of 12 currently enrolled full-time undergraduate student members in order to be considered eligible for benefits. In order to preserve opportunities for undergraduate students to gain leadership experience, other individuals within the University academic community may participate in a group’s activities or programs but may not be members or otherwise attempt to direct, lead or inappropriately influence the group’s activities.”

The rule of twelve doesn’t seem to have any bearing in this situation, but it seems Derr felt that if Wood had kept his position, he could have cost GUSA its allowance.

Wood switched to pep-talk mode in his last words to the Senate, channeling a certain POTUS—he said he hoped GUSA would press on in its “hard work to accomplish positive change on campus.” Spoken like a true Senator, Brian.