Georgetown University students will vote to elect six representatives for each of the classes of 2024, 2025 and 2026 to the Georgetown University Student Association (GUSA) Senate this week.
Nine first-years, seven sophomores and five juniors are running to serve in the GUSA Senate for the Fall 2023 semester, with campaign promises ranging from increasing transparency — particularly in the club funding process following recent cuts to advisory boards — to prioritizing equity in future GUSA initiatives and better upkeep of facilities. Polls will open April 13 at 10 p.m. and close April 15 at 10 p.m.
Incumbents Jibril Syed (MSB ’24), Julian Jimenez (CAS ’24), Max Massick (CAS ’24) and Megan Skinner (SFS ’24) are joined by new candidate Mason Leath (CAS ’24) on the ballot for the class of 2024 Senate seats.
Sophomores running for GUSA Senate seats include three new candidates — George LeMieux (CAS ’25), Dua Mobin (CAS ’25) and Noriko O’Shea (SFS ’25) — and three incumbents, Saatvik Sunkavalli (SFS ’25), John DiPierri (SFS ‘25) and Chijioke Achebe (SFS ’25).
If elected, LeMieux said he will seek to improve the campus community through serving in the GUSA Senate.
“A key part of our student body is the community and culture, which is kept thriving much in part due to the traditions and social events that take place throughout the year,” LeMieux wrote to The Hoya.
“Unfortunately, many of these events have lost their key attributes over time due to online semesters. I would like to resurrect some of the lost traditions as well as work to create new ones to foster the community,” LeMieux added.
Mobin said she will use her experience as a member of the College Academic Council, the Georgetown Emergency Response Medical Service (GERMS) and the College of Arts and Sciences Dean’s Office taskforce for diversity, equity and inclusion to mitigate equity issues on the hilltop as a GUSA senator.
“My campaign focuses on several diversity, equity and inclusion issues such as inaccessibility to federal work study jobs, an ineffective bias reporting system and Leo’s hours conflicting with religious practices of the student body,” Mobin wrote to The Hoya.
First-year candidates seeking to serve in the Senate next year include incumbents Meriam Ahmad (CAS ’26), George Currie (CAS ’26), Dylan Davis (CAS ’26), Rhea Iyer (CAS ’26), Hilary Orozco (CAS ’26) and Andrew Wong (SFS ’26). Incumbent Seth Edwards (CAS ’26) is not running again, while Yasin Khan (SFS ’26), Mark DiLapi (CAS ’26) and Ethan Henshaw (CAS ’26) are running as new candidates.
After serving in the Senate since November, Edwards said he is not running again because he felt other avenues would allow him to advocate more effectively for issues such as workers’ rights on campus.
“In my opinion, the Senate is not an effective place to do advocacy work,” Edwards wrote to The Hoya. “To me, it seems action actually gets done at the executive level because of their communications with the administration.”
“Honestly, sometimes I would leave Senate sessions just wondering what exactly we sat down for an hour about,” Edwards added.
Henshaw said he is running to increase student awareness of GUSA, help senators better fight for mental health resources and funding, improve worker conditions and push for fairer club funding.
“[GUSA’s] mission statement is all about empowering students, involving them in governance, and advocating for marginalized communities,” Henshaw wrote to The Hoya.
“None of this is possible when almost no one on campus interacts with GUSA. I’d do everything I can to get the student body more involved in GUSA and, therefore, get them more influence over the actual administration,” Henshaw added.
LeMieux said he views GUSA’s role in the Georgetown community as an opportunity for students to hold the university accountable and to find new solutions to the problems they are facing.
“As much as GUSA should be a managerial instrument it should also be a space for positive and creative solutions for our community,” LeMieux wrote.
