It’s that time of year again. Vox has sent the 2010 version of its annual Georgetown University Student Association Candidate Survey to each of the four Presidential and Vice Presidential hopefuls and we’re posting their (usually long-winded) responses as we receive them.

This year, we’re asking candidates things like what they think of club funding reform, how the University has handled the 2010 Campus Plan, and how they’d evaluate President Calen Angert (MSB ‘11) and Vice President Jason Kluger’s (MSB ‘11) time in office. (Or in Angert and Kluger’s case, their own time in office).

Up today is Hillary Dang (SFS ‘12) and Katie Balloch (COL ‘12).

What are three goals you’d try to accomplish as GUSA execs?

Our slogan says a lot about what we’re trying to do: “Simplify and unify.” We’re hoping that if we get elected, we will be able to make the entire campus more productive by utilizing current resources and simplifying the steps it takes to get things done.

1. Ensure success of the newly amended funding structure so that GUSA can effectively allocate the proper funds to student organizations.

2. Increase safety on campus and facilitate better relationships with neighbors. We’d like to reform SafeRides so that in conjunction with the loop, there would be an on-call car for people who feel they are in emergency or extenuating circumstances and can’t wait until the scheduled pick up time. We really like the effort that students have taken in starting Georgetown Samaritans and would like to take this type of “neighbors helping neighbors” measure further so that the surrounding neighbors respect us as mature adults.

This type of relationship will make both parties happier because students will be more conscious of noise at parties, and the neighbors will think twice before called Metro and issuing a noise complaint. By having SNAP as the first response, we hope to help more effectively mediate between students and residents of the Georgetown community.

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It’s that time of year again. Vox has sent the 2010 version of its annual Georgetown University Student Association Candidate Survey to each of the four Presidential and Vice Presidential hopefuls and we’re posting their (usually long-winded) responses as we receive them.

This year, we’re asking candidates things like what they think of club funding reform, how the University has handled the 2010 Campus Plan, and how they’d evaluate President Calen Angert (MSB ‘11) and Vice President Jason Kluger’s (MSB ‘11) time in office. (Or in Angert and Kluger’s case, their own time in office).

Up today is current Senator Arman Ismail (COL ‘11) and running mate Tucker Stafford (COL ‘12). NB, they have declined to answer “How would you characterize Angert’s time in office?”

What are three things you’d try to accomplish as GUSA execs?

One of the issues that we plan to address is the transparency of GUSA. In putting together this campaign, we discovered just how hard it is to get important information from GUSA. Sometimes it is impossible for us to get the information we need, and when we get information we need it is sometimes so complex that it is hard to interpret. We plan on not only making it possible for a student to get a hold of any GUSA paperwork but also to be able to understand it. We will simplify the information coming out of GUSA (particularly with budgeting) so that students can know where their money is going.

We also plan to make the students’ experience at Leo’s a better one. We will take measures to pressure Leo’s to ensure that there are enough utensils for everyone. In addition we will address the concerns of those who have medical or religious dietary restrictions. Sometimes food is not labeled properly, so some students are unsure what is in their food. We will ensure that all food in Leo’s is marked properly.

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Brian Roscitt (MSB ‘11) and William McGeehin (MSB ‘11) may have dropped out of the race for GUSA President and Vice President, but not before they answered Vox’s annual GUSA Candidate Survey.

This year, we’re asking candidates things like what they think of club funding reform, how the University has handled the 2010 Campus Plan, and how they’d evaluate President Calen Angert (MSB ‘11) and Vice President Jason Kluger’s (MSB ‘11) time in office. (Or in Angert and Kluger’s case, their own time in office).

Here’s what Roscitt and McGeehin had to say:

Thanks for taking the time to consider our ideas.

The question driving our campaign is whether Georgetown is ready for the solution instead of being part of the problem. We hope that Georgetown is ready. In a sneak peak of our platform, we would like to offer a few solutions:

1. No more fires in freshman dorms

2. Amazon Kindles > Textbooks = More money for students

3. No more guns for freshman at Midnight Madness

4. A Wendy’s and Waffle House located in the Leavey Center/and or Hariri Building

5. More Blizzards

6. Helicopters.

I hope this is helpful in considering our campaign. Please let us know if you have any more questions.

Sincerely,

Brian Roscitt and William H. McGeehin

Asked whether Vox could still run their survey answers now that they had exited the race, Roscitt revealed the depth of their convictions.

“[T]hat sounds good. We just don’t want anyone to think we’re actually running/take us seriously,” he wrote in an e-mail. “However, we still do steadfastly stand behind our ideas and platform.”

It was a bold vision while it lasted.

Here’s part two of Vox’s GUSA candidate surveys, featuring Village C West candidates Bruce Thomas (SFS ‘13) and Taylor Wettach (SFS ‘13), Harbin 2-5 candidate Colton Malkerson (COL ‘13), Village B candidate Matthew Hoyt (COL ‘12) and Off-Campus candidate Rahul Singh (SCS ‘10).

Read their responses after the jump!

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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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Survey Says…

GUSA has compiled the results of their “Omnibus Student Survey,” the summer survey which polled the student body on everything from GUSA’s structure, student diversity, and GUTS buses, to student safety, academics, and the free newspaper program and earned its chief organizer, GUSA President Calen Angert (MSB `11) high marks on the Angertometer.

Here’s what the 1,020 student respondents said, according to an email from Angert (because of a glitch with UIS, the are no breakdowns available for individual questions):

• 29 percent of students said they felt unrepresented by GUSA last year

• 77 percent of respondents rated GUSA’s student advocacy track record “poor” or were unsure of how they felt, but 20 percent approved of their past programming

• 66 percent felt that Georgetown is a diverse campus and the same number felt there is “sufficient programming, as organized by faculty and staff, on campus that engages students on the subject of diversity”

• Over 90 percent said they would support a continuation of Saturday GUTS bus routes and an expanded GUTS route to include a bus to a grocery store (GUSA recently accomplished the latter)

• 91 percent said they felt safe on campus, but two-thirds of respondents would like to see increased DPS patrols

• 92 percent agreed that “the university fosters an environment that is conducive to intellectual learning.”

• 89 percent said that they had read a free newspaper provided on campus by the Collegiate Readership Program that was recently suspended due to funding issues

After the jump, see all the results Angert provided in his e-mail!

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The Voice editorial board, which has interviewed all the candidates running for GUSA President and Vice President, endorsed Jeff Lamb and Molly Breen for GUSA Prez and VP this week. But don’t take our word for it! Vox wants you to make a (more or less) informed decision when roughly a fourth of you decide to vote in this year’s GUSA election!

We’ve sent surveys to all eight presidential candidates and will post them as we receive them. Below, Peter Dagher explains why he and VP candidate Elais Ibrahim deserve to be elected as top execs.
What are three things you’d try to accomplish as GUSA execs?

The top three goals for our administration center on the desire to make life cheaper and safer for students while also improving interaction with career advisors.

• To help students save some extra money each semester we’re looking to initiate a legacy book sharing program. By working with the registrar we hope to create a link between current and future students taking the same course which would allow them to come together and pass down books for a nominal fee. Why sell books back for pennies at the cafeteria or the white van at the library when students could be helping other students.

• In regards to safety, we are advocating the importance of improving Safe Rides. Already under investigation by Dowd’s administration, this is a crucial issue facing Georgetown students, considering the high rate of public safety alerts issued every month.

• Our final goal, which has become clear to most students during their junior year, is increasing the dialogue between administration and students about career opportunities and potential employment. Many students end up picking their Academic advisor for their major and never go back to them for advice – we would like to encourage this interaction which is so important, given difficulties finding jobs and figuring out what to do post-Georgetown.

What qualifies you to be GUSA’s next President and Vice President, keeping in mind that how you’d look as an odometer is fair game.

Elias and I both come from a very diverse background and owe so much to Georgetown that we’d like to give a little back and try to make things better for students – the one thing that really makes Georgetown special. A dual citizen myself, I’ve been amazed at all the different backgrounds of my friends here at Georgetown and I think it’s amazing how well everyone gets along together. I expanded my horizons this past semester while studying in Tokyo for the semester – an opportunity not many schools offer, while Elias worked on perfecting a third language while living abroad in Spain. Georgetown really has something for everyone, no matter what interests you. Now it’s our chance to try and expand upon that.

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Molly Breen and Matt Jeff Lamb

Today, the Voice editorial board, which has interviewed all the candidates running for GUSA President and Vice President, gave its endorsement to Jeff Lamb and Molly Breen. But don’t take our word for it! Vox wants you to make a (more or less) informed decision when roughly a fourth of you decide to vote in this year’s GUSA election!

We’ve sent surveys to all eight presidential candidates and will post them as we receive them. Below, Jeff Lamb explains why he and VP candidate Molly Breen deserve to be elected as top execs—and why they deserved the Voice’s endorsement.

What are three things you’d try to accomplish as GUSA execs?

As GUSA executives, Molly and I would restructure and improve campus safety with additional funding, and the launching of our proposed student escort service: Safewalks.

In addition, we would use our relationships with campus administrators to lobby for cross-school minors. As part of your education experience here on the hill, we believe it is natural for students to explore a spectrum of fields. The University to should recognize academic exploration as a part of education, and cater to student’s needs via the establishment of cross-school minors.

Finally, we would use our organizational experience to fights the costly and time consuming 61D noise violation. This semi-new noise violation, voted on by the Georgetown Neighbors Association makes it possible for you to receive a misdemeanor and a $300 fine if the noise level of your party is over 61 decibels. We plan to work with the Neighbors Association and local businesses to reduce the severity of noise violation penalties in the Georgetown area.

What qualifies you to be GUSA’s next President and Vice President, keeping in mind that how you’d look as an odometer is fair game.

Molly and I both have proven organizational experience that has vested us with polished listening, planning, and operational skills. As Chief Operating Officer of the Georgetown University Student Investment Fund, I understand organizational structure which fosters tangible action. In addition, my job as a student assistant in the Office of the President has given me the opportunity to build relationships with various administrators, and to get experience with the inner workings of Georgetown.

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Calen Angert and Jason Kluger

This week, the Voice, which has interviewed all the candidates running for GUSA President and Vice President, will give their endorsement of one or two lucky pairs. But don’t take our word for it! Vox wants you to make a (more or less) informed decision when roughly a fourth of you decide to vote in this year’s GUSA election!

We’ve sent surveys to all eight presidential candidates and will post them as we receive them. Below, Calen Angert explains why he and VP candidate Jason Kluger deserve to be elected as top execs. If video’s more your thing, check theirs out here.

What are three things you’d try to accomplish as GUSA execs?

• Improve career services. We hope to make career services not just a resource for students to discover, but a proactive service which comes to the students. Through short consultations, the career center could achieve two goals: raise awareness of its existence/usefulness to the student body and help students to consider their future life goals/plans. While job placement is an important function of career services, it should also consider a wider scope when directing students for life after the hilltop. Career services should help students develop a life or career plan on an individual basis as opposed to catering primarily to those with defined goals.

• Work on student safety. After sitting on the Student Safety Advisory Board, I understand that only so much funding and resource allocation goes towards student safety. Though I support advocacy for increased funding, the current economic crisis is a harsh reality check for such dreams. However, within the confines of the safety budget, we can restructure and streamline operations to create funds from previously committed monies. Through student lead initiatives, such as student drivers for Safe Rides, the decreased hiring costs could allow for an expansion of Safe Rides’ hours of operation or its fleet.

• The Georgetown Fund: While we would normally suggest intellectual life and improved relations between students and professors for one of my main issues, we will substitute a part of our platform which received less attention in this campaigning period. The executive branch works under a $60,000+ budget, and we intend to allocate $30,000 of it for student groups in need of funding. Under this plan, student organizations may apply for money and a GUSA co-sponsorship to host an event. Considering the already scarce funding available to students, the Georgetown Fund would provide simple access to much needed money. We believe GUSA should serve the students, and funding their activities helps to show this support.

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Andrew Madorsky and Sean Hayes

Next week, the Voice and The Hoya will interview all the candidates running for GUSA President and Vice President and give their endorsement of one or two lucky pairs. But don’t take our word for it! Vox wants you to make a (more or less) informed decision when roughly a fourth of you decide to vote in this year’s GUSA election.

We’ve sent surveys to all eight presidential candidates and will post them as we receive them. Below, Sean Hayes explains why he and VP candidate Andrew Madorsky deserve to be elected as top execs.

What are three things you’d try to accomplish as GUSA execs?

• The Career Center is not just for the MSB. It seems that our “school-wide” career center really only caters to the needs of MSB finance and accounting students. Why shouldn’t students interested in pursuing fields like journalism, government, public policy, and nursing have access to great internship and full-time job opportunities like those same MSB majors currently do in their field of interest? We would work to restructure the Career Center by petitioning it to establish new relationships with companies and networks outside the finance world.

• Mentor Programs. The Georgetown Alumni network is an incredible resource that remains largely untapped by the student body. With policies we hope to implement, students will have access to contact listings and work profiles for Georgetown Alumni that can be used to make valuable connections that are so essential in today’s economic environment. We would set up a program for students interested in being linked with former alumni in order to build relationships, network, seek advice with career help, and develop a better understanding of what life after graduation entails from the perspective of a person who was in your same shoes a few years back.

• Campus-wide printing services. Many non-MSB students often voice their frustrations that the MSB gets ‘free’ printing. We feel that we can change the system for the better for everyone involved. We think that we would be able to work with the school to enable students to print to any printer on campus, much like MSB students enjoy with the printers at the Tech Center. This would eliminate usage fees at the library (and longer lines due to payment processing), and create a more efficient printing system that everyone can enjoy.

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