After six senators left the GUSA senate to join the GUSA executive cabinet and staff March 25, six new senators were elected to the open seats Friday and sworn into office Sunday.
The newly elected senators will hold their positions for the remainder of the academic year. It is common for a significant number of senators leave their positions to join the Georgetown University Student Association executive at this time of year.
“We picked our cabinet from the senate and we knew they would have to resign. It wasn’t a factor in our decision but it was something [that] we were aware of,” GUSA President Nate Tisa (SFS ’14) said.
Tisa worked closely with Senate Speaker George Spyropoulos (COL ’14) to ease the transition period.
“We made sure [that] we had elections as soon as we could. We made sure [that] the executive staff met with senators and that elections were ready to go,” Tisa said. “The expectation is that even though people transition from the senate to the exec, everyone is doing something.”
According to Tisa, the senate waited to confirm its new senators before introducing a bill to add sexual assault education to New Student Orientation.
“We did this on Sunday in particular because we wanted new senators to be involved in the discussion,” Tisa said. “Generally the senate is a consensus body — something is usually widely supported or not at all.”
Though the newly elected senators will only serve until the end of April, they say they still plan to be active during their time in the GUSA senate.According to Spyropoulos, the newly elected senators were unusually active at their first senate meeting.
‘The senators participated in the debate, which new senators never do,” Spyropoulos said.
He acknowledged, however, that the new senators will play a different role in the senate due to the limited timeframe of their tenure.
Nico Dona Dalle Rose (SFS ’15), who replaced new Chief of Staff Zach Singer (SFS ’15) as LXRsenator, said that GUSA should expand communication with the public in the remaining weeks of the semester.
“It is imperative for the administration to reform and simplify the way in which it communicates with the student body,” Rose said. “By restructuring the system of online platforms — from work orders to the Georgetown homepage —current and prospective students will have an easier time and will make the best of Georgetown’s resources.”
Mary Beth Brosnihan (SFS ’13) replaced former Chair of Finance and Appropriations Sheila Walsh (COL ’14) as townhouse senator.
As a senior and the only female elected in Friday’s special elections, Brosnihan hopes to push for change during her final month on the Hilltop.
“I have plans to continue drafting a proposal for [Georgetown University Transportation Shuttle] buses on weekends … working toward further party reform, rat eradication and expedited housing repair. It’s ambitious but I hope to see some tangible results before graduating,” Brosnihan said.
Spyropoulos pointed to the unique position of seniors elected to GUSA in their final semester on campus.
“I’m glad to see [that] people who have no future GUSA aspirations … want to join student government. It’s important to have seniors in the senate — they have a different perspective,”Spyropoulos said.
Jimmy Ramirez (COL ’15) replaced Tisa as Village A senator. Danish Zaidi (COL ’13), who took a hiatus from the GUSA senate after serving in 2011, replaced former senator at-large and GUSApresidential candidate Shavonnia Corbin-Johnson (SFS ’14), who resigned to become director of group outreach in Tisa’s cabinet.Liam Detwiler (COL ’15) will serve as Southwest Quad senator, replacing Director of Special Initiatives Nolan DiConti (COL ’15). Josh Shinbrot (COL ’16) will take over as Freshman South senator for Deputy Chief of Staff Chandini Jha (COL ’16).
