GUSA recently passed a resolution, with a vote of13-3, asking the university to clarify its position on the USA Patriot Act, which was passed by Congress last October in response to the Sept. 11 attacks.

Representatives Luis Torres (COL ’05) and Shez Islam (COL ’05) introduced the bill at the Student Asssociation’s April 15 Assembly meeting. The representatives sponsored the resolution on behalf of the Georgetown University College Democrats and Campaign Civil Rights, which includes members of student organizations such as Amnesty International, the Muslim Student Association, GU Peace Action, Georgetown Solidarity Committee and the Young Arab Leadership Association. Members of these groups approached Torres and Islam with concerns about how the Patriot Act affected Georgetown students.

“Initially the first resolution I was going to introduce focused on the many different forms of governmental authority that infringed upon the rights and privacy of college students,” Torres said. He explained the first draft of the resolution called for the university to take a public stance against certain provisions of the Patriot Act as well as make public its stance on the enforcement of its provisions.

However, GUSA did not have time to discuss and vote on the resolution the first time it was introduced, at the April 8 GUSA meeting, because a number of other resolutions had been presented. So the resolution was tabled until after elections of the new representatives.

In the meantime, CCR and Torres had several meetings with administrators such as Vice President for Student Affairs Juan Gonzalez, University Provost James O’Donnell and the Office of the University Counsel. Though CCR has met with the administration every month since last semester, this was the first time GUSA officials had formally participated in them. They were actually able to help formulate Georgetown’s official statement clarifying its stance regarding the Patriot Act.

After being elected and upon learning of the resolution, Islam also wanted to join in and help introduce the resolution.

The discussions also led to the formulation of ways to educate students about the Act. For example, the group came up with the idea to create a library privacy awareness campaign that would provide information to students about how to protect their electronic privacy. For example, Torres said, “CCR was concerned because anyone could walk in to the library and ask for certain students’ records and that they would be released.”

not released student information that was not common directory sort of information, such as owing a fine.

“The university librarian [Artemis Kirk] was adamant that the library had never done this and was not planning on doing this unless presented with a subpoena,” Torres said.

Torres explained that after being made aware of the procedure, the idea was for the university to make this policy pubic so that this would address some of the concerns of the students. GUSA and CCR wanted students to be made aware of what was going on, “especially those international students more directly affected by the act,” he said. “So we committed ourselves to helping participate in these initiatives, whether it involved providing volunteers and taking care of the actual work. [GUSA] also got involved to keep the administration accountable.”

After the successful discussions, Torres rewrote the resolution and eventually introduced to the GUSA Assembly supporting the efforts of the administration and ensuring GUSA and student participation in the ongoing discussions.

“There are people on the Assembly who think we shouldn’t be getting into these issues,” Torres said. “But the main reason we introduce these things is because GUSA is an advocacy committee and these things are important to students. If it affects students, we have a responsibility to address it and give them a forum to express themselves.”