The GUSA senate clocked in a brief meeting Sunday afternoon, and, in a mere a 22 minutes, managed to pass a Resolution to Promote Student Health and approved a GUSA Fund Funding Package.

GUSA helps Georgetown stay healthy
Senator Lawrence Slusky (COL ’14) introduced the resolution requesting that the administration increase the amount of hand sanitizer dispensers on campus. In light of the severe flu season this winter and the role hand washing plays in disease prevention, Slusky believes this action must be taken by the Senate.

“A serious flu epidemic such as this requires immediate and significant action to protect our students, faculty, and staff. I believe this resolution will support the health and well-being of our community, by both promoting engaged academic success and reinforcing our university’s commitment to safety,” said Slusky.

The bill passed by a voice vote.

Snappin’ necks and cashin’ checks, GUSA style
Vice Speaker Zack Singer (SFS ’15), who led the meeting Sunday in the absence of Speaker Nate Tisa (SFS ’14), introduced the Jan. 15, 2013 GUSA Fund Funding Package.

The package funds student organizations including the GU Astronomical Society, the MSB-Hilltop Business Strategy Challenge, and Alternative Spring Break. The GUSA Fund is also giving capital to Bring on the Books Foundation, who will facilitate the yearly book drive, as well as the Dr. Michael Greger Speaking Event, a prominent nutritionist and director of Public Health at the Humane Society.

The funding package passed unanimously.

In the Good of the Order, Sen. Slusky raised an important question.

“Next Sunday is the Super Bowl. How are we going to deal with that?”

On Sunday, October 23, the Georgetown University Student Association held its fourth general senate meeting. The meeting dealt with last bits of administrative tasks left for the beginning of the year, and legislative business handling several bylaws.

GUSA Speaker Adam Talbot (COL’12) brought to attention a few campus issues, including the Ann Coulter’s controversial appearance last week and the upcoming public phase of the Capital Campaign, a fundraising campaign with a goal of raising $1.5 billion, which is suspected to be a big deal on campus this coming weekend.

The senate also congratulated Jack Appelbaum (COL ’14) on being elected SAC chair.

The administrative duties on the agenda were the elections of the new Secretary and Director of Technology. Abby Greene (COL ’14) and Joe Fiorica (COL ’14) were elected, respectively.

As for legislative business, the Senators embarked on a series of rigorous debates on a couple of revisions to the group’s bylaws. After a heated discussion that lasted almost two hours, the senate approved the charter of the GUSA Fund, a council under the authority of the senate, which provides resources for Georgetown undergraduates who request funding or institutional assistance for events. In addition to providing funding, the charter will provide co-sponsorship status for events that student groups organize.

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On Sunday, October 16, the Georgetown University Student Association held its first third senate meeting. The meeting dealt mainly with administrative tasks, such as electing senators into GUSA’s various groups.

The first of these tasks was to confirm the lucky five senators students whose job it will be to administer the GUSA fund, a $30,000 fund derived from the University’s Student Activities Fee meant to give student groups on campus an outlet for supplemental funding. Out of between 15 and 20 applicants, the GUSA Executive nominated Cody Cowan (SFS ’14), Murphy Kate Delaney (COL ’13), Talia Dutcher (COL ’13), Nick DeLessio (COL ’15), and Mark Svennson (COL ’12) as administrators to the GUSA fund, and all were confirmed at Sunday night’s meeting.

According to Cowan, the GUSA Fund members also serve as “an advisory source for smaller groups.” He described how many groups last year did not know what was available for them in terms of funding, and how he plans to step up the Fund’s marketing this year. Dutcher elaborated on this, saying that the GUSA Fund would work hard to “assess the overall need of students” and allocate money as it sees fit.

The GUSA Senate also used this meeting to elect their Parliamentarian. After about five minutes of discussing how she would be the most suitable person for the role, Hannah Miller (COL ’14), the sole candidate, was voted in by the Senate on a majority vote.

The Georgetown University Student Association Senate elected senators for internal leadership positions during this week’s meeting; next week, the body will begin to debate legislation.

The new leadership includes Speaker of the Senate Adam Mortillaro (COL ’12), Vice-Speaker Ben Bold (COL ’13), Director of Technology Ben Goldhaber (SFS ’12), Parliamentarian Kolby Keo (COL ’14), and Secretary Laura West (COL ’13).

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This week’s Georgetown University Student Association meeting featured an irksome inauguration (just like Obama’s!) and tear-jerking eulogies to Philly P’s. Here’s the wrap:

Inaugurations: GUSA swore in the newly-reelected President and Vice President Calen Angert (MSB ’11) and Jason Kluger (MSB ’11)—perhaps extraconstitutionally?

“There is a curious little quirk of the by-laws which requires the outgoing president and vice-president to administer the oath to the incoming president and vice-president,” Parliamentarian Sam Ungar (COL ’12) told the Senate. Given that the outgoing president and vice-president and the incoming president and vice-president were one and the same, Ungar decided to administer the oath himself.

After their swearing in, both candidates delivered speeches to the GUSA senate. Kluger called on the Senate to remember Gandhi’s words to become the change they want to see in the world, while Angert urged Senators to maintain their dedication to the GUSA senate and never be afraid to throw themselves into large and challenging projects. Angert then swore in newly-elected Senator Andrew Foley (MSB ’10), who could not raise his right hand because his arm is broken—another suspect inauguration?

GUSA Fund Bolsters Funding Board: The GUSA senate approved a bill to transfer $15,000 from the GUSA fund to the Student Activities Fee Reserve account, which is used to provide funds to advisory boards. Chairman of the Finance and Appropriations Committee Nick Troiano (COL ’11) said he had talked with GUSA Fund Chair Kate Petersen (COL ’11) and that she said the GUSA Fund could limit its spending to $15,000 for the semester.

“We simply want to go into the budget process with as much money as we can,” Troiano said.

New Sign: GUSA unanimously approved a bill to appropriate $200 towards the creation of a vinyl sign bearing GUSA’s logo. The bill was introduced by Senator Nolan Johnson (COL’11), who said the sign was “a great way to make use of GUSA’s new logo”.

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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At Sunday’s meeting, GUSA established that this year’s presidential elections would be accompanied by a debate between all the candidates. God know what the actual elections will look like, though—Senators lost the bill they passed last year setting down the terms for this year’s election. They also approved some members for the GUSA Fund’s board and debated rescheduling this week’s Funding Reform Town Hall around students’ TV watching schedules. Here’s the wrap:

Election Season: In his executive briefing to the Senate, Calen Angert (MSB ’11) announced that he and his vice president, Jason Kluger (MSB ’11), would be running again for president and vice-president respectively. Angert said he and Kluger had discussed the option and decided that “there are a lot of things we still can get done.” (See Molly Redden’s post to read about the agenda Angert and Kluger are running on.)

But if the conclusion of this section of the meeting was any indication of how smoothly elections will go this year, after the catastrophe that was the 2009 elections, the outlook is not good. Our Senators, it turns out, could not find the bill they passed last year that dictate how this year’s elections would be held.

The bill, passed just before last year’s elections, established that this year’s elections would be held as an instant runoff. The Senators could find absolutely no trace of the bill, even after one GUSA senator went back to his house to search for it. So, although several vowed they had seen it, the Senate had no choice but to forget about the Loch Ness Election Bill and address other issues.

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On Sunday, Georgetown University Student Association Calen Angert (MSB ’11) and Jason Kluger (MSB ’11) announced to the GUSA Senate that they planned to run for reelection in the presidential election on February 23.

In an interview with Vox, Angert said that they had been considering whether or not they would run again for some time now.

“We’ve been asked a lot whether or not we were gonna run again, but before we decided, we wanted to make sure that we had value added we could give, things that could continue to be improved upon, very real achievable goals,” he said.

Angert explained that he and Kluger will be running on an agenda platform that promises to achieve specific goals, one which they will reveal in more detail once campaigning actually begins. Their agenda will focus on improving student safety, campus and social life, and student space.

“I’m a huge fan of the word agenda as opposed to platform. People should expect a GUSA candidate to deliver on all of the items they’re running on,” Kluger said.

Without giving away what he and Kluger will be specifically promising—they said they would be exploring what they can realistically promise over the next week—Angert said that their agenda would probably include new initiatives to improve student safety and a push for more and better student space.

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At yesterday’s GUSA meeting, Senators forged ahead with plans for the GUSA Fund and were briefed by the executive branch about the Readership program and buses to basketball game. Here’s the wrap:

The GUSA Fund

In a unanimous vote, GUSA passed a bill that would transfer $4,000 of its own funds into the recently created GUSA Fund. The $4,000 will be matched by $26,000 from the Funding Board for a total of $30,000. The transfer of $4,000 of GUSA’s own money was meant to show the Senate’s commitment to the new fund.

Colton Malkerson (COL ‘13), a sponsor of the bill, stated that “We do think the GUSA fund is important, necessary and will benefit students, so certainly we thought that GUSA could easily put forward $4,000.” Malkerson added that the bill was “an act of good faith for the GUSA fund.”

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