The Georgetown University Student Association (GUSA) Senate passed four bills clarifying GUSA election guidelines and urging the expansion of student services, including LinkedIn Premium access and Debit dollar use, at its Oct. 20 meeting.
Among the nonbinding resolutions passed by the senate were bills that would provide all students with complimentary access to LinkedIn Premium, a subscription-based membership to the professional networking service LinkedIn, replace part of students’ allocated Flex dollars with Debit dollars and address gaps in the university mailing system. The senate also passed a resolution to clarify the GUSA campaign regulations, explicitly banning bribery in exchange for votes and barring campaigns from mass emailing the link to the voting form, and tabled a bill that would increase biodiversity on campus.
The resolution that would grant all students access to LinkedIn Premium is intended to advance students’ professional development and potentially improve Georgetown University’s ranking in college lists that evaluate economic mobility, according to the bill’s text.
The bill’s sponsor, Senator Rhea Iyer (CAS ’26), said the idea for this bill came from a member of the student body.
“We were reached out to by a student with this idea,” Iyer said at the meeting. “So this actually originally started in the student body and we’re kind of just acting on it in the bill.”
Another bill passed by the senate urges the university to substitute half of the Flex dollars included in student meal plans with Debit dollars, which can be used to purchase food, toiletries or larger items from the bookstore.
Senator Ethan Henshaw (CAS ’26), the sponsor of the bill, said that since Flex dollars can only be used on food items, adding Debit dollars would allow students to purchase other necessities.
“I’m hoping to split the amount of Flex dollars you have in half, and have half be Debit dollars,” Henshaw said at the meeting. “That way it’s easier to access toiletries and hygiene products than spend real money.”
Another bill the senate passed calls on the university to improve the university mail system, including creating an inquiry into where packages should be delivered while the mail center is closed, requesting the creation of a form where students can report issues with mail delivery and opening consistent communication between GUSA and the mail office.
Senator Evan Cornell (CAS ’27), one of the co-sponsors of the legislation, said this bill would ensure that the university can account for mail containing important documents and packages.
“There’s a lot of issues with packages getting processed, and also when the mail center isn’t opened, packages are just left out to dry,” Cornell said at the meeting. “A lot of times there can be sensitive things in those, like medications or important materials that can only be delivered to a student, such as ballots.”
Senator Tina Solki (MSB, SFS ’26) said this bill would also help address issues with the delivery of letter mail, saying mail is often delayed.
“With mail specifically, all letter mail only gets picked up once a week, and if you’re waiting on something that’s very time sensitive, it can very easily just get pushed back a week,” Solki said at the meeting.
The final bill passed by the senate clarified election regulations, with Speaker of the Senate Meriam Ahmad (SFS ’26) saying that the guidelines will now clearly ban coercive solicitation of votes in exchange for compensation, which will be monitored and evaluated by the Election Commission.
“Are you allowed to go up to someone and say, ‘hey, vote for me’? And the answer to that is yes, you are allowed to do that,” Ahmad said. “Are you allowed to table and have your materials up and say, ‘hey, vote for me’? Yes, you are allowed to do that.”
“What you are not allowed to do — this is what we changed — is to coercively solicit votes, such as sharing the link to vote with somebody and then watching that person vote for you,” she added.
This bill also prohibits soliciting votes through Canvas notifications or mass emails sent to more than 10 people at a time, though it leaves intact the ability to send a mass email to request an endorsement. It also allows candidates to include a link or a QR code to the voting form on their flyers.
In preparation for the election, GUSA announced that their election would run from 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 5 through Thursday, Nov. 7, with results being released by Saturday, Nov. 9.
