The Georgetown University Student Association (GUSA) Senate, Georgetown’s student government, amended executive candidacy bylaws and passed two bills at a meeting Dec. 7.
The senate passed a bylaw amendment requiring executive candidates to be enrolled at Georgetown’s Hilltop Campus or Capitol Campus at the time of the executive election. The senate also passed two pieces of legislation that urge the university to replace broken laundry machines, and to reduce the cost of replacing a lost dormitory key.
The senate passed the executive election bylaw amendment with only senators Tina Solki (MSB, SFS ʼ26) and Tyler Chase (CAS ʼ28) voting against.
GUSA president Ethan Henshaw (CAS ʼ26) said the bill ensures a smooth transition between the outgoing president and president-elect.
“I think having that person there while the previous president is still in office, if you bring them to all the meetings, is going to be an incredibly important thing for things to keep running smoothly,” Henshaw said at the meeting.
Senator Cameran Lane (CAS ʼ28), the speaker of the senate, said he introduced the bill so the president-elect can be on campus during the transition of presidency.
“In my opinion, people that aren’t on campus should not be running for our top job,” Lane said at the meeting. “Logistic wise, it’s a big thing. You have to be aware of issues happening here. There’s probably the need for a lot of meetings, which, yes, theoretically, can be done virtually, but there’s value in being here on campus during election season.”
Solki said the amendment oversteps the bounds of GUSA’s constitution by requiring executive candidates to remain on Georgetown’s Washington, D.C.-based campuses during the election period.
“I think that it’s unnecessary,” Solki said at the meeting. “I think it engages in presumptions that it shouldn’t. The section that reads ‘reinforcing the importance of maintaining physical presence within the community both while being president and presumably during the race to become one’ — that’s not a presumption that’s constitutionally bound. I don’t think that we should engage in that presumption.”
Jacob Intrator (CAS ʼ27), the vice speaker of the senate, said students who study abroad may not be informed on campus issues while running for office.
“It is important that whoever runs for president has had enough experience on campus and knows the campus issues, prior to becoming president and spending the semester prior abroad,” Intrator said at the meeting. “I feel like they’re not going to be fully looped in with what the campus issues are. I think this provides a good amount of clarity.”
The senate also unanimously passed legislation that calls on the university to repair broken laundry machines and update the inspection system.
Simon Maxwell (CAS ʼ29), who introduced the bill alongside senator Luke Schneeman (CAS ʼ28), said the laundry machines may pose a safety risk to students.
“Our laundry machines are also catching fire,” Maxwell said at the meeting. “It is a direct safety threat to the students. At least two laundry machine-related fires have happened this year. It’s affecting our health and safety.”
Schneeman said the bill requests Planning and Facilities Management or community directors to do biweekly checks and reports of broken laundry machines.
“Our proposal is to have either somebody from facilities or community directors for each building, every other week, go through and make the reports and follow up on them, so that laundry machines that are inoperable are actually getting reported and getting fixed in a timely manner,” Schneeman said at the meeting.
The senate also unanimously passed a bill urging the university to lower the cost of dorm key replacement from $150 to $75, with a further reduced rate for students receiving financial aid.
Dima Al-Quzwini (SFS ʼ29) said students who lose their key choose to leave their doors unlocked rather than pay the replacement fee.
“I don’t know if this is a thing across all grades, but everyone in my grade has lost their key, and people are not replacing them, because they don’t want to have to pay $150,” Al-Quzwini said at the meeting. “So people are just leaving their doors unlocked. Obviously this is a safety issue.”
Roan Bedoian (CAS ʼ28), the chair of the financial accessibility subcommittee, said students frequently share concerns about the replacement fee to the subcommittee.
“It is an issue that is regularly brought up — almost every meeting — for the financial accessibility subcommittee,” Bedoian said at the meeting. “Yes, students’ doors are unlocked, but this is actually posing a real financial challenge to students — there are students who have said that is a barrier in that space.”
Al-Quzwini said she hopes to reduce the replacement fee further if the university considers adopting the bill.
“If they’re very amenable to this, I would want to go back and make it even more accessible,” Al-Quzwini said. “But for now, at least there’s this so that the people that carry the most burden and are most impacted have this at least for now.”
