At a press conference this afternoon, GUSA President Mike Meaney (SFS ’12) stood with a handful of other student body presidents as they unveiled their letter to President Obama, imploring him and other leaders to reach a compromise on the debt ceiling debate and the country’s budget crisis.

Over 100 college and university student body presidents representing over 2 million students signed the letter.  Similar letters will be hand delivered to members of Congress.

Meaney, who spearheaded the initiative along with other members of GUSA, explained that the idea to appeal to the country’s leadership was born out of a conversation during a bus ride about a week ago. The topic of discussion: the discrepancy between how our government ideally works and “the sorry state of the ongoing gridlock over the debt ceiling and deficit.”

“We asked ourselves: How come our leaders can’t seem to work together for the good of the country? Why do they seem to care more about the next election than the next generation?” he said. “Young people are often used as a political football, but we can’t afford to let others speak for us any longer.”

The letter [PDF] is an appeal for bipartisan collaboration that transcends party agendas, ideology, and promises.  “We can’t pass up an opportunity to solve our problems because of pledges, partisanship, or pettiness,” Meaney said. He later denied any reference to the GOP’s Pledge to America, which was released before the 2010 elections and vowed to drastically reduce government spending.

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Nate Lubick is still very, very interesting in Mike Meaney (SFS ’12) and Greg Laverriere’s (COL ’12) new campaign video.

Our question is, who’s doing this voiceover?

This month’s Advisory Neighborhood Commission meeting lacked the kind of heated debate that can often break out on the second floor of the Georgetown Visitation School, but it did feature an appearance from Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans that spiced things up a little.

Evans’ appearance gave the crowd on hand an opportunity to ask some greater-D.C.-related questions, which touched on the District of Columbia’s current budget issues, the city’s response to the massive snowstorm in February, and the possibility of statehood—all in all, more civic-minded questions than the ones residents asked of Evans last year, such as a question about getting those infernal trolley tracks taken out of P Street.

Evans seemed uninterested in pursuing statehood at the moment. Why?

“It’s not in the cards right now. I hate to say this about one of my colleagues, but every time Marion Barry does crazy things it feeds right into Congress’ view that he could be elected mayor again and God forbid if they had control over their affairs what could happen then? I was talking with Northrop Grumman about relocating and his name came up, and that’s a problem,” Evans said.

The meeting also included a brief presentation from Georgetown Energy, a Georgetown student-run not-for-profit organization that is advocating the implementation of rooftop solar technology across the District.

Anthony Conyers (COL ’12), Peter Nulsen (COL ’12) and Jessica Robbins (SFS ’12) accompanied Mike Meaney (SFS ’12), who directly addressed the ANC about Georgetown Energy’s campaign.

He emphasized the financial sense of installing solar panels on roofs, noting that the typical Georgetown home would receive a net profit of $30,000 over a 30-year period by installing solar panels.

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Ah! Buses!

If you’re heading to the Verizon Center on Saturday to watch the Hoyas trounce (we hope) American University, your ‘best’ options for getting there—splitting a cab six ways, taking the GUTS bus to the Dupont Metro stop to Chinatown, or worst of all, taking the GUTS bus to the Rosslyn Metro stop to Metro Center to Chinatown—are all a real hassle.

But if things shake out the way Georgetown University Student Association President Calen Angert (MSB ’11) thinks they soon will, students will have a fourth, better option for getting to weekend games sometime during this men’s basketball season—buses that go directly to the Verizon Center.

Angert and his colleagues have been talking about implementing new routes for a while, but have only recently made substantial progress on the issue.

GUSA Deputy Chief of Staff for Student Life Mike Meaney (SFS  ’12) recently spoke to Abe’s Transportation, which runs Georgetown’s weekend transportation, which told him that they were happy to change the routes. He is preparing to speak to the director of transportation of the Athletic Department to work out the change with them.

“I don’t know if this will get off the ground before Christmas or after Christmas,” Angert said, but they are on track to happen this season.

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