During the past few years, the Georgetown University Student Association has transformed from an exclusive organization that only ostensibly represented student interests into a group integrated with student life and concerns. But there is still work to be done before GUSA can truly call itself representative of the student body.
This year, students should take the next step in making GUSA their own by voting for Tyler Sax and Michael Crouch for GUSA president and vice president.
The Sax-Crouch ticket has a unique platform in this year’s strong candidate pool. While all the candidates propose initiatives to improve student life, Sax and Crouch are the most committed to making students the driving force in that process. Both have had significant experience in GUSA — Sax as director of special projects for the current executive and Crouch as secretary of information technology.
Their platform, which pushes for technological innovations, bolstered alumni relations and better student space across campus, is most unique in one regard: its plan for implementing campuscrowdsourcing with IdeaScale, an online means for students to submit questions and ideas to be voted up or down. Additonally, Sax and Crouch plan to give students the positons and resources to carry out the projects they propose.
GUSA has been bogged down by its own bureaucracy and politicking. Within today’s GUSA, senators and cabinet members face the same concerns as many students and have ideas about how to improve student life, but they believe GUSA is the only entity that can implement their plans. Sax and Crouch have a different plan in mind for their potential executive term.
The strength of the Sax-Crouch ticket stems from its operating style and crowdsourcing ideas. These guiding principles will make it easy to integrate the best proposals from each of their competitors and from the student body at large. But their plan also includes tangible goals centered on following through with the current administration’s initiatives, building ties throughout the Georgetown community and inspiring innovation.
Where the platform truly shines, however, is in its pledge to empower students. Rather than having students submit ideas to GUSA for it to execute, Sax and Crouch will allow students to see their own projects through while providing them with necessary support and administrative leverage. The Sax-Crouch vision for GUSA is an organization composed of students, by students and for students.
If Sax and Crouch want a serious shot, though, they need to stand behind the initiatives in their platform, not just the philosophy. Their collaborative innovation-based model is indeed what makes them the best ticket, but if they overemphasize this aspect, students will begin to fear that that their theory outweighs their practicality.
Votes go to platforms with projects that students have heard of, and here Sax and Crouch have sold themselves short thus far. Many of their proposals — completing the installation of wi-fi on Healy Lawn, GPS tracking for SafeRides and a climate action plan — are feasible and would be appealing to the average student but have not been marketed well during their campaign. These are the types of initiatives the pair should be spending time pitching and, if elected, working to implement.
This is not to detract from the ideas of other tickets, however. Colton Malkerson and Maggie Cleary provide several examples of the kind of plans we’d like to see in the coming term.
While they have come under fire for their 20-page platform and expansive budget, the Malkerson-Cleary ticket has addressed common themes for improving daily life on campus, from Jack’s List to Zipcars to expanding printing options for College and School of Foreign Service students. Similarly, their long-term objectives, such as their focus on keeping the New South Student Center in the hands of students and expanding cross-school minors, are concrete enough to succeed. Our doubts concerning their ticket stem from the question of how much GUSA can do on its own without connections to administrators or other student affiliations.
And so the Sax-Crouch ticket maintains our endorsement. In comparison with the rest of this year’s strong candidates, Sax and Crouch may have fewer proposed initiatives, but their genuine desire to create a more student-friendly, integrated GUSA executive pushes them to the front. Should they win, students can be confident in their ability to identify good ideas and implement them with the aid of the people best suited for particular jobs.
While initiatives are important in any campaign, Sax and Crouch’s clear commitment to the students whom they wish to serve, coupled with their previous GUSA experience, gives them an edge over other contenders.
The Editorial Board did not consider the Morris-Weber ticket for its endorsement because of Lauren Weber’s (COL ’13) status as a member of The Hoya’s Board of Directors.
