The Georgetown University Student Association (GUSA) Senate, Georgetown’s student government, passed three bills and swore in a new member at its Nov. 16 meeting.

The senate passed a resolution to condemn the Office of Residential Living’s recent policy changes affecting residential assistants (RAs) and to sign a petition against those changes led by the RA’s union, the Georgetown Residential Assistant Coalition (GRAC). Additional approved legislation includes bylaws amendments to create two new legislative aide positions in the senate and to change the position of alumni relations chair to senate historian.

The senate unanimously passed the resolution supporting GRAC’s petition, which denounces five recent policy changes, including a requirement that RAs commit to the role before knowing their building assignments and restrictions on RAs selecting their suitemates in suite-style housing.

GUSA Vice President Darius Wagner (CAS ’27) said the senate can show support for RAs by encouraging students to sign the petition.

“We’re going to need all the signatures we can get,” Wagner said at the meeting. “A lot of us have friends that are RAs, and they’re going through a tough time.”

“One thing we can do to give back to them is to get people to sign this petition,” Wagner added.

The senate also unanimously passed a bill changing the title of alumni relations chair to senate historian, expanding responsibilities to include overseeing the senate’s website and artifacts in addition to the existing duty of corresponding with senate graduates. 

Senator Christian Spadini (CAS ’26), who introduced the bill and previously served as alumni relations chair, said changing the role will increase the position’s utility by introducing new responsibilities.

“I think that alumni relations in many organizations tends to be a pretty useless position on its own,” Spadini said at the meeting. “This adds some duties that actually make sense, like helping with the website. A big thing that I discovered in our alumni relationships is that we have a lot of cool and esoteric GUSA documents upstairs in the library that I think people might be interested in seeing from time to time.”

Evan Cornell (CAS ’27), who was elected at-large senator while studying abroad, was sworn in during the meeting over Zoom.

The senate also voted to pass a bill creating two legislative aide positions in the senate, with only Senator Roan Bedoian (CAS ’28) voting against. 

Bedoian said she opposed the legislation because she was concerned it would create an unnecessary hierarchy and bureaucracy in the senate.

“I voted against creating legislative aides because the way the Senate was discussing it, such as throwing around the term ‘interns’ for our peers, felt conceited and arrogant,” Bedoian wrote to The Hoya. “On top of that, doing research, gathering feedback, creating materials, managing outreach, etc. are our jobs in the Senate — that’s what we’re elected to do and outsourcing that work is both disingenuous and unnecessary.”

Senate Speaker Cameron Lane (CAS ’28), who also introduced the bill, said the senate needs assistance with graphic design and research.

“My hope is that one will be skilled at graphic design and the other will be more of a research worker,” Lane said at the meeting. “There are plenty of issues where the senate will benefit from having more research to see what students are thinking. There’s a lot of stuff in the bylaws that we have to carry out that I think falls through a lot.”

Senator Dima Al-Quzwini (SFS ʼ29) said creating the legislative aide role allows students who did not win in a GUSA election to get involved with the GUSA senate.

“We wouldn’t be giving off responsibility, because we want to continue to show that we can do the job — but at the same time, other passionate people can continue having an opportunity to engage in some way,” Al-Quzwini said at the meeting.

Senator James Beit (MSB ’26) said the senate should create the two positions for the new senate session and reevaluate the role at the end of the term. 

“It’s two interns, and if they’re useless, then they’re useless,” Beit said at the meeting. “But if they’re helping, we find out how interns can be used, how aides can be effective and how they’re not — and we can come here to the senate six months from now with the knowledge of how it works and we can actually write this policy effectively.”