The Georgetown University Student Association (GUSA) Senate approved six resolutions at its March 26 meeting aiming to improve GUSA’s inner workings, university mail distribution and increasing student access to Riggs Library, among other issues.

The Senate approved a proposed club-funding budget and passed acts requesting the university administration extend service hours for SafeRides, late-night shuttles to transport students to and from campus; upgrading the user interface and accuracy of NextGUTS, the Georgetown University Transportation Shuttles (GUTS) bus-tracking web app; and opening Riggs Library for study or public visitation hours. 

The Senate also approved an amendment to its bylaws setting up the executive positions of outreach director, engagement director and social and community officer and passed an act setting up a survey and report on university mail services. 

Senator Rhea Iyer (CAS ’26) sponsored the resolution to extend SafeRides service hours. SafeRides are currently available between 8 p.m. and 2 a.m. most weeknights and from 8 p.m. to 3 a.m. weekends and Thursday nights.

Iyer said other local universities, including The George Washington University and American University, provide similar services for longer hours, and proposed extending SafeRides availability to improve student safety during dark winter evenings.

“I propose to extend that service hour time from 6 p.m. to 4 a.m., just as a way to be more safe on the roads,” Iyer said at the meeting. “In daylight savings, I think it gets dark around 5 to 6. So this would ensure that SafeRides that are available when it does get darker in daylight savings.”

Senators George Currie (CAS ’26) and Andrew Wong (SFS ’26) proposed the resolution to upgrade NextGUTS. Wong said NextGUTS is neither accurate at representing bus locations nor user-friendly. 

“This poses a safety concern, especially late at night, when the GUTS bus is a mode of transportation you rely on to get back to campus,” Wong said at the meeting.

GUSA President Camber Vincent (SFS ’24) and Senator Bora Balçay (SFS ’23) introduced the bill to amend the GUSA bylaws, creating the positions of outreach director and engagement director. The outreach director is tasked with collecting student opinions on GUSA projects, and the engagement director will provide opportunities for GUSA members to interact with other students, especially first-years, through a working group.

Vincent said officially creating the first-year working group and adding the engagement director as a permanent chair would promote long-term student engagement across administration changes.

“It cements the freshman working group into the bylaws, which was started this year, under the engagement director, someone whose position does not change over the course of the entire fall semester,” Vincent said at the meeting.

Currie and Wong also introduced a bill to increase student access to Riggs Library, which urges the university to allow students to either study in or simply visit the historic library. Currie said many Georgetown students hope to explore Riggs, especially as the university uses photographs of the library’s interior in many promotional materials.

“They don’t want students to go in, not only coming to study there, but it’s usually locked,” Currie said at the meeting. “The resolution is either institute a lottery or sign up to allow students to study there, or else at least to open it up.” 

A third bill Currie and Wong introduced institutes GUSA oversight of Georgetown Mail Services, with GUSA distributing a semesterly survey to acquire data on Mail Services and urge Georgetown to expand student jobs there.

Students have criticized mail services for delays and miscommunication, according to Wong.

“What this resolution does is just GUSA will do a little research on how the mail service is doing, a little research and maybe find a solution to this,” Wong said at the meeting.

The Senate also considered a resolution which proposed urging the university to set up a permanent memorial for Madeleine Albright, former secretary of state and professor in the School of Foreign Service. After objections from some senators, both political concerns relating to Albright’s record on human rights in Iraq and Serbia, and administrative concerns regarding the difficulty of implementing a permanent memorial, senators voted to table the resolution.

Every proposed bill passed unanimously, with only one abstention from Balçay on the Riggs Library reopening bill.

Balçay commended senators’ work and the culture around GUSA over his four years as a senator, as this was the last meeting in which the class of 2023 senators will participate.

“I’ve been invested for four years now,” Balçay said. “GUSA used to be a very different place. I’m very happy that our working culture now is so much better than the one that I came into.”