With an overall participation rate of 33 percent, Georgetown students selected GUSA Legislative Assembly members for the 2001-02 school year in an online ballot last Tuesday.

The new GUSA representatives for the 2001-02 academic year are Keavney Klein (NUR ’02), Ben Anderson (COL ’02), Steve Glickman (COL ’02), Meghan M. Keeler (SFS ’02), Marty LaFalce (COL ’03), Mary D’Ariano (COL ’03), Ted Bauer (COL’03), Trey Street (SFS ’03), Emily Sun (SFS ’04), Anthony Marinello (COL ’04), Sanjeev Kumar (MSB ’04) and Somil Trivedi (COL ’04).

The newly-elected representatives said that they were satisfied with how the campaign and election were run, and stressed the importance of communication, cohesion and increased participation to achieve positive changes in the coming year.

“Overall I think the election was clean and fairly run,” Street said. He was critical of poor attendance at the debate, but said that it served well to familiarize those new to GUSA with important issues.

Glickman echoed similar statements.

“I would have liked to see more outside student opportunities to meet and discuss issues with the candidates,” Glickman said.

GUSA Elections Commissioner Will Cosmas (COL ’01) said that online voting makes elections easier and more effective.

“It helps turnout, and we don’t have to worry about polling stations or anything, so we can concentrate on candidates,” he said. The online format been used since the GUSA representative elections last spring.

Completely online voting has given students studying abroad the opportunity to vote for the first time in an assembly election. Those currently abroad were able to run for office, as senior representative Megan Keeler, who is currently abroad, demonstrated with her victory.

“There is no better way to publicize elections than e-mail … it opened up a lot of doors for a lot of people,” Keeler said.

The accessibility created by online voting extends to daily GUSA procedures with Saxa Server, the Student Association Web site.

Cosmas was also pleased with the participation level 33 percent overall, especially in light of the timing of the elections.

“Due to Yard issues, elections had to be held late in year, when people are thinking more about grades.”

Despite this, participation is up from last year’s 28 percent. The freshman class participation rate was 50 percent voter.

“It’s very encouraging great to see [the freshman class] actually care about issues on campus,” Cosmas said. 

Cosmas said that it is important to keep participation levels rising.

“As more and more people get involved, GUSA becomes more relevant, because it reflects their concerns,” he said.

“I’d like the process to keep opening up. It’s good when non-incumbents run.  The more diverse the pool of candidates we have, the more representative it can be, and the better it can be,” he said.

Klein agreed student involvement is essential.

“In light of the recent debate surrounding the Yard and the trend of increased activism among Georgetown students, I would like to see GUSA more effectively represent the interests of a larger portion of the student body,” Klein said.

Many representatives said that a sense of community and cooperation among representatives is vital.

“I would, first of all, like to see the representatives in the Assembly have more collegial relationship. I don’t think that we should be competitive and always out for self promotion,” Street said.

Representatives also stressed the importance of communication between the GUSA representatives, the student body, and the administration.

“We need to break down the gap between `being a student leader’ and `being an average student,'” Bauer said.

LaFalce, also a returning representative, echoed this sentiment, citing the need to “engage all parties within the university in constant communication,” LaFalce said.

“I’d like to see administrators present before the GUSA Assembly on a regular basis,” he said.

Glickman would like to strengthen the voice of the student body by uniting the efforts of the many student groups and campus activists through GUSA.

The representatives will all serve one year terms.