Two issues top Georgetown University Student Association’s to-do list as it prepares to return for the fall: weekend Georgetown University Transportation Shuttle services and club finance reform.
GUSA Vice President Jason Kluger (MSB ’11) said the senate has created a plan to reinstate weekend GUTS bus service.
This spring, an investigation of funding for weekend GUTS bus services showed that the program would quickly run out of money. GUTS buses are not paid for directly by the university, but by GUSA and the Alumni Fund. In the final GUSA Senate meeting of the 2009-2010 academic year on May 2, $5,000 was approved to pay for the program in the short term.
But the long-term question of who will pay for the program has yet to be resolved. “[GUSA President] Calen [Angert (MSB ’11)] and I feel . that the ultimate responsibility of funding this program does not rely on the students given how weekend GUTS buses serve many members of the university in addition to the students,” Kluger said, pointing to the fact that the administration currently pays for the GUTS bus on weekdays.
“We look forward to working with administrators on this issue with the goal of establishing a sustainable program that does not put the financial burden on the student body for a service that the entire university community enjoys,” he added.
On the issue of club reform, Kluger said he felt more comfortable declaring victory as the keynote of his administration’s previous year. “The club funding reform process proved successful during last year’s annual allocation at the end of the year,” Kluger said.
Club funding reform proved to be a contentious issue on campus in the spring as well, since the decisions made had ramifications for the way student groups received money to fund events and programs.
The Student Activities Commission appropriates money from GUSA to allocate to clubs within its jurisdiction, which covers most extracurricular activities on campus. In order to receive funding for the 2010-2011 academic year, SAC had to approve several reform measures approved by GUSA, such as publicizing budgetary votes within SAC. The final budget for SAC, after acquiescing to GUSA’s demands, was approved May 2.
One of the issues raised within the reform discussion was that a significant amount of budgetary responsibilities fall on GUSA, which, outside of the Executive Administration, undergoes a high rate of turnover each year.
“The club funding reform process proved successful during last year’s annual allocation at the end of the year,” Kluger said in an e-mail. “We look forward to analyzing that process further, improving on it in collaboration with the GUSA Senate, and establishing an institutional knowledge within GUSA, particularly during the transition period of the summer and September, during which members of the Fin/App Committee will continue to educate younger Hoyas on the process of funding and its overall importance to the student body as the mechanism of ensuring complete financial transparency and accountability.”
He also noted that the Summer Fellowship, a GUSA program that pays for a limited number of students to receive free housing while interning in Washington, D.C., had a successful summer.
“We were thrilled with the successful expansion of the mentorship side of the program,” he said.
Looking ahead, Angert has hinted that the senate will have a productive semester.
“We’ll have both major and minor initiatives coming through the pipeline,” Angert said. “In a macro sense, we’re best prepared to tackle our new agenda now that some lingering issues, such as student funding, have resolved themselves.”
He added that GUSA’s executive has expanded to better accommodate underclassmen interested in getting involved.
