GUSA President Brian Morgenstern (COL ’05) and Vice President Steve de Man (COL ’04) spent the past year “bringing it home,” but it will soon be time to pack it up and go home.

The pair will step down from the positions they have held for over a year once the GUSA election results are certified by the Assembly.

Morgenstern and de Man’s term was supposed to end on Feb. 17, but the Student Association’s executive elections ended inconclusively. Kelley Hampton (SFS ’05) and Luis Torres (COL ’05) received the most votes but were disqualified by the GUSA Elections Commission for excessive campaigning violations.

Adam Giblin (SFS ’06) and Eric Lashner (COL ’05) were declared the winners, but Hampton and Torres plan on appealing the sanctions.

Reflecting on the past year, Morgenstern and de Man were both grateful to the student body for the opportunity to serve and humbled by the experience. “I gained a college experience that only one student per year gets to have,” Morgenstern said.

Among their biggest achievements, they list the elimination of the “lockdown” policy, the pilot weekend GUTS program and Hoyapalooza.

“I think we did a good job of getting the basics done,” de Man said.

They also recognize that in retrospect some of the promises in their platform were unfeasible such as bringing basketball games back to McDonough Gymnasium.

Morgenstern encouraged his successors to begin progress on every platform goal before the end of the summer because once the fall semester starts, there is little time for new initiatives.

Such was the fate of his designs for an online face book, which will still happen but not under Morgenstern’s administration, and plans for a new student center which Morgenstern says “seems to be further and further off in the future.”

Some of the greatest challenges the pair faced were in accommodating students, the GUSA Assembly and administrators.

“Inherent in the structure of the administration there are certain road blocks,” de Man said.

Morgenstern elaborated that it is difficult to ask administrators to perform their jobs the way students wish, because administrators are well-trained and experienced professionals.

Nevertheless, he said, that he was “pleasantly surprised” by the cooperation of administrators he dealt with on a regular basis such as Daniel Porterfield, vice president for public affairs and special initiatives, and Todd Olson, interim vice president for student affairs.

Morgenstern was the first sophomore elected to the GUSA presidency as far back as current records go, and he seems to have set a trend. Three of the four presidential candidates and two of four vice-presidential candidates this year were sophomores.

Although it was initially difficult, he said he believes that overall it was better that he served as a junior instead of as a senior. “The beginning was much harder than for a junior. I had only been here one and a half years when I became president. That’s overwhelming for anyone,” he said. “But if I had gone back and delayed it a year, I don’t think I would have been as productive.”

Both Morgenstern and de Man emphasized that the efficacy of GUSA directly correlates to the quality of its members. “Much of what students care about can be done without the title of president or vice president,” de Man said, “but the organization gives institutional authority to accomplish these goals.”

Morgenstern was dismissive of people who criticize GUSA as an ineffectual institution.

“Just because you are not seeing tangible results on a daily basis does not mean that officials are not actively doing their jobs,” he said. “It’s ignorance and I don’t hold it against people.”

When asked about the greatest lesson of the past year, orgenstern sagely responded that he was unsure. “I won’t be able to fully answer that question until I’m a couple of months into my post-GUSA life,” he said.

Looking to the future, de Man will graduate in May from Georgetown College with a degree in American Studies. He will spend the next two years teaching U.S. history as part of the Teach for America program; a challenge that he says he eagerly awaits.

Morgenstern will return to the Hilltop next fall as an academic senior and a GUSA senior statesman. Beyond that, he said he is uncertain. Whether or not he will play a role in GUSA will be subject to the new administration. Morgenstern had endorsed Giblin.

Elected on a platform promising to “bring it home,” orgenstern and de Man have already begun to pack their personal items in the GUSA executive offices in the Leavey Center. According to Morgenstern, however, they have no intentions of vacating the premise immediately. Instead, they plan to linger after the new administration takes over.

And with the certification still over a week away, they could be around longer than they bargained for.