Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Finalized Student Life Report Debuts

Aiming to provide a 10-year blueprint for the improvement of student life, GUSA released the final version of its Student Life Report Monday.

Some of the report‘s recommendations, such as hiring a professional director of club sports and adding satellite offices for the Center for Social Justice, will require significant cooperation from student organizations and the university administration in order to be enacted.

Report Committee Chair Shuo Yan Tan (SFS ’12) cautioned that while the suggestions are specific, they are intended to catalyze conversation rather than prescribe exact changes.

“The recommendations are specific, but step back and say this is just a small inkling of the possibilities,” Tan said. “Ultimately, there’s so much more that can be done.”

The report is the first comprehensive set of recommendations for improving student life since the Georgetown University Student Association released a similar document in 1999. That report led to the establishment of the Club Sports Advisory Board and laid the groundwork for Student Activities Fee Endowment reform.

This year, the committee scrutinized the university’s five advisory funding boards. The document also examines intellectual life and university regulations related to student life.

Tan listed the three most notable recommendations as the centralization of student space reservations, enhancement of student intellectual life and the addition of a sixth advisory board encompassing groups providing alcohol-free programming.

The report recommends a merger of the Georgetown Program Board and What’s After Dark. That new entity would collaborate with the Lecture Fund as members of the sixth advisory board focused on offering low-cost events, like concerts and lectures.

Other recommendations include giving student organization officers online access to their finances, codifying student organization sanctions and increasing opportunities for faculty-student interaction.

Vice President for Student Affairs Todd Olson noted that many of the recommendations, such as weekly office hours held by Olson and University President John J. DeGioia, are aligned with initiatives that the university is currently pursuing.

According to Olson, the administration wants to look seriously at the report’s recommendations and identify areas in which it wants to improve.

“We want to engage in ongoing conversations with students,” Olson said. “All these issues are very much worth talking about.”

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