On Sunday night, the Georgetown University Student Association Senate resolved several outstanding issues regarding the Student Activities Commission funding reform and passed two resolutions, one relating to university investment policy and the other creating a director of technology position for GUSA.
The senate was presented with a letter, written by SAC Chair Ethel Amponsah, in which SAC agreed to many of the reforms demanded by the senate and executive. SAC agreed to use $12,000 of its reserves to fund student groups in fiscal year 2011, and to use $150,000 of it in the next three years.
A committee consisting of SAC Chair Ethel Amponsah, the leader of the SAC Civic Commission and two other members of SAC advisory groups will now select the SAC commissioners. The votes of all the commissioners on all bulk allocations, when money is distributed to the student groups, will now be reported. At the end of the report, SAC requested that funds for the next year be released to the clubs.
Senator Nick Troiano (COL ’11) supported the allocation of the funds to SAC. “I think I’m happy with most of the reforms, though there’s still a lot of debate about the open voting question,” he said. He called upon SAC to make every vote open, while still calling upon GUSA to release the funds to SAC.
GUSA President Calen Angert (MSB ’11) reported to the senate about weekend GUTS bus service. Angert cited THE HOYA article from April 23 reporting that the SAC Alumni Gift Fund would soon run out of money.
Angert claimed that GUSA, as a partial partner in the fund, would have no choice but to support GUTS, saying, “For a school that has no Metro system . we should be working to correct that.” Angert pointed out that it seemed illogical to have the student government funding a service that was paid for during the week by the university, but declared that the service was essential.
Chair Adam Talbot (COL ’12) suggested that all people using the bus pay for it by swiping their GOCards and incurring a 25-cent charge each time they rode the bus. Such a fare, Talbot claimed, would still make it more available than the Circulator, which charges 50 cents with a Smart trip card. No resolutions were drafted on the issue.
A resolution on the ethics of university investment policies, drafted by Clara Gustafson (SFS ’13), served as a response to a presentation by Georgetown, Divest! at the previous GUSA senate meeting.
In the resolution, GUSA called upon the university to “strive to exercise its shareholder rights” by sending proxies to stand for the university at meetings with fund managers and by forming a committee to examine the university’s investments, which would listen to concerns raised by students about the nature of those investments.
Gustafson said that such an action would be necessary for the university to honor its Jesuit ideals. Ideally, she said, the new committee would serve as a mechanism for students to voice their concerns.
Sen. Colton Malkerson (COL ’13) supported the resolution but warned that the senate should make clear that the resolution was not in support of any one group on campus.
“I just want to make sure that we don’t support [Georgetown, Divest!] too broadly,” Malkerson said. “I wouldn’t want them to take this resolution to mean that we support them fully.”
The resolution passed the senate with 14 voting in favor and four abstaining.
The second resolution, drafted by Malkerson, dealt with the proposed director of technology position for GUSA. The resolution would create the position, which would be tasked with recording, posting and archiving meetings and committees that requested the use of such a system. The director of technology would receive a $300 stipend per semester.
The resolution passed the senate, with 14 voting yes and three voting no.
