The Georgetown University Student Association (GUSA) Senate passed six resolutions, including bills to allow for digital campaigning, add debit dollars to meal plans and provide charging stations across campus, at its April 7 meeting.

The meeting was the last of the 19th senate, with senate elections and an inclusive housing referendum on the ballot, and elections concluding April 13. Senators passed the digital campaigning resolution, which allows candidates to share links to the election ballot on online platforms, to address turnout issues in recent GUSA elections. 

Senator Ethan Henshaw (CAS ’26) said permitting candidates to send students the ballot link online would not amount to pressuring students to vote, but would instead increase voter turnout.

“Based on the fact that Georgetown historically struggled to attract voter turnout and campaigning is very important to getting turnaround, seeing the link on your Instagram is not going to pressure you one way or another,” Henshaw said at the meeting. “I see the vision for someone’s at the table pressuring you to vote, but if you see a link on Instagram I think it’s still unbiased.”

Another one of the resolutions would provide traps for cockroaches and other pests to all students. 

Senator Lex Njomin (SFS ’27) said students should automatically have access to traps, rather than being required to place a work order to obtain them.

“You can already get these pest drops by order from the university, you put in the work order,” Njomin said at the meeting. “I want these to be in the rooms to start with at the start of the school year. They’re relatively non-invasive.” 

“Clearly whatever the university is doing now is not working and so this helps to not only remedy the effects of our pests but to just act as prevention,” Njomin added.

Senator Meriam Ahmad (SFS ’26) introduced a third resolution that would provide access to Canva Pro, an online social media design website, to all students, saying the resolution would continue the conversation with the Provost’s Office in looking into the program.

“People use Canva all the time,” Ahmad said at the meeting. “Canva Pro makes it more helpful to use and they have a program specifically designed for universities called Canva for Campus. In some meetings with the provost where they talk about this, they’re definitely amenable to it, this is just adding us to the conversation.”

The senate also approved a resolution to reinstate debit dollars in student meal plans, with Senator Olivia Mason (CAS ’26) saying students living at Georgetown’s downtown campus, including future cohorts of students in the new environmental studies and public policy majors, had limited dining options, with no locations taking meal swipes or flex dollars.

“There are no meal swipes –– it’s only Capital Dollars, which are able to be used on Grubhub, at Safeway and other places downtown to get coffees,” Mason said at the meeting. “Those are the only options for students downtown. So next year when the students are doing the public policy major, they will not have many places to go because there are no places to take meal swipes. There are also no places that currently take flex.”

“By changing what is currently Capitol Dollars downtown for those downtown students to debit dollars means that students who are taking classes on the Hilltop and the downtown campus at the same time will be able to get food no matter which campus they’re studying at,” Mason added.

Additionally, the senate passed a resolution to provide more phone chargers on campus.Mason said these chargers should be able to withstand rain and other environmental factors. 

“When we talk about the weather issue, you would be able to install some kind of plastic coverings and I think that would be the most effective,” Mason said. 

While the university already provides charging stations inside first-year dorms, Senator Max Massick (CAS ’24) said outdoor chargers should be installed in blue light safety stations across campus that allow students to contact the police.

“We can stick them in the blue lights or just wherever there’s electricity,” Massick said. “I’m sure the university could find somewhere and then that would just be a nice quality of life upgrade for students.”

The senate also passed a resolution to make student NetIDs available on Canvas so students can easily contact other students in their classes and tabled a resolution to remove automatically locking doors and electronic locks.