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

GUSA Declares Support for Disability Center on Campus

The Georgetown University Student Association Senate voted in favor of the creation of a disability cultural center on campus and the extension of the 2021 spring tuition deadline during a Jan. 10 meeting.

The disability center resolution signs the GUSA Senate onto a petition that calls for the establishment of a university-funded center for students with disabilities that would provide academic, social and supportive programming and create a designated space for the disabled community. The petition, created by GUSA’s Accessibility Policy Team, has garnered over 700 signatures as of Jan. 17. 

Students with disabilities face unique challenges that require attentive support, something which Georgetown has fallen short on, according to GUSA Senator Eric Perez (COL ’23), who introduced the resolution.

KASSIDY ANGELO/THE HOYA | The GUSA Senate voted in favor of the creation of a disability cultural center on campus and the extension of the 2021 spring tuition deadline during a Jan. 10 meeting.

“It’s demanding the university take more into account the needs of the disabled community on campus and then committing to working with administrators,” Perez said during the senate meeting. 

In addition to the petition, the Accessibility Policy Team has also launched an Instagram account, which currently has more than 1,300 followers, and has advocated for the creation of the center in several GroupMe channels.

The center will work to foster a sense of community for students with disabilities on campus, according to GUSA Accessibility Chair Nesreen Shahrour (NHS ’23).

“Our goal is really just to center the lived experiences of disabled people and encourage socialization and community, and I think this is something that we don’t see anywhere on campus,” Shahrour said during the meeting.

At the meeting, the senate also passed a resolution demanding Georgetown extend the spring tuition deadline from Jan. 24, one day before classes start for the spring semester, to the end of February. 

Georgetown has failed to explicitly communicate the spring payment deadline, leaving students to speculate about when the payment is due, according to GUSA Senator Rowlie Flores (COL ’22), who introduced the legislation. 

“Even with changes to the academic calendar, the University failed to communicate the new deadline of 01/24 to the student body and students have often had to rely to GroupMe to find out information about the current payment deadline,” Flores wrote in an email to The Hoya.

Many low-income students do not qualify for a payment plan and rely on financial aid options like work-study to pay for tuition, which makes it impossible for them to pay for tuition before the semester starts, especially given the financial strain of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the resolution.

After the Jan. 10 resolution was passed, the university responded with changes to make the spring deadline more manageable for students on Jan. 12. These changes include a reduction in the minimum balance threshold, the introduction of a grace period for payments and an appeals process, according to Rico Marea, senior director of revenues and receivables.   

The university did not extend the deadline for the spring semester because GUSA’s concerns were mainly with undergraduate financial aid, which includes only about 3,000 undergraduate students, according to Marea. 

“The deadline applies to all undergraduate, graduate, and professional students at Georgetown University (numbering upwards of 18,000). Many have already made payment or payment arrangements based on the deadline, and changing the deadline at this point would be unfair,” Marea wrote in an email to The Hoya. 

In the fall, the deadline was extended because financial aid packages came later than usual. However, financial aid packages were delivered on time for the upcoming semester, according to Marea. 

“We know that the Financial Aid office is working tirelessly and thoroughly to respond to student inquiries and address confusion about the changes in aid packages,” Marea wrote. 

While the university should have extended the deadline for payment, the changes they implemented will still help students, according to Flores.

“I still wished that the University agreed to the extension but I think reducing the threshold for payment plan eligibility is helpful,” Flores wrote. “I see it helping the entire student body and not just low-income students.”

Low-income students still need support and access to federal work-study options, according to Flores.

“For myself and other GUSA officials, we must ensure that there are enough work-study options for all students eligible for federal work study and that students are accommodated for their time zones, and this is something that I will have an eye out for in the coming weeks,” Flores wrote.

The senate also discussed the time and manner of GUSA elections during the meeting and unanimously passed a resolution combining the GUSA Executive and the first-year GUSA Senate elections to both occur in November. Currently, first-year senators are elected in September, while GUSA president and vice president are elected in February. 

Reducing the number of elections will allow the student body to be more engaged in GUSA elections and will ease the burden placed on the Election Commission for having to manage three elections a year, according to the resolution.

The resolution also argues that with the new election schedule, first-year students will hopefully be more knowledgeable on issues faced by Georgetown students before running and the executive will have more time to come up with the annual budget.

The earlier election of the executive will also ensure that senior executive members, whose terms end in March of their senior year, will remain active in their positions, according to Flores.

“A lot of our presidents are seniors and most of them don’t want to do work for the spring semester, so moving that to November is a great precedent and I really support this bill,” Flores wrote.

Leave a Comment
Donate to The Hoya

Your donation will support the student journalists of Georgetown University. Your contribution will allow us to purchase equipment and cover our annual website hosting costs.

More to Discover
Donate to The Hoya

Comments (0)

All The Hoya Picks Reader Picks Sort: Newest

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *