Midterm Report
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GUSA Cabinet and Staff President: Enushe Khan Vice President: Chris Fisk Chief of Staff: Ari Goldstein Deputy Chiefs of Staff: Mahwish Bari, Sam Granville, Casey Nolan, Olivia Hinerfeld, Garet Williams, Pat Sullivan, and Zac Schroepfer Director and Deputy Director of Communications: Natalia Pena and Thomas Massad Secretary: Megan Yeager Treasurer: Jared Ison Historian: Matt Hinson Director of Federal and D.C. Relations: Kotryna Jukneviciute Director of the Student Advocacy Office: Jack Nalen Co-Directors of Freshman Outreach: Harry Clow and Erin Luck What’s a Hoya Coordinators: Sara Castiglia, Mara Goldman, and Ashwin Puri Speaker of the Senate: Richie Mullaney Vice Speaker of the Senate: Cherie Vu Chair of Academic Affairs: Brendan Saunders Chair of Accessibility: Dani Zamalin Chair of the Arts: Katie Rosengarten Chair of Athletic Affairs: Carter Rise Chair of Dining and Auxiliary Services: Mark Camilli Chair of Entrepreneurship: Jake Maxmin Chair of Free Speech: D.J. Angelini Liaison to Greek Life: Tucker Cowden Chair of LGBTQ Inclusivity: Grace Smith Chair of Mental Health: Sylvia Levy Chair of Race and Cultural Inclusivity: Alex Alonso Chair of Religious Inclusivity: Evan Waddill Chair of Residential Living: Christopher Holshouser Chair of Safety and Sexual Assault Policy: Maddy Moore Chair and Vice Chair of Socioeconomic Inclusivity: Emily Kaye and Cameron White Liaisons to Student Organizations: Ricardo Mondolfi and Annabelle Timsit Co-Chairs of Student Worker Affairs: Laura Fairman and Obed Ventura Co-Chairs of Sustainability: Ben Zimmer and Ben Baldwin Chair of Technology: Yafet Negash Chair of Transfer Affairs: Sydney Jean Gottfried Co-Chairs of Undocumented Student Inclusivity: Jessica Andino and Javier Melendez Liaison to Unrecognized Student Groups: Sama Rao Student Representatives to the Board of Directors: Sara Castigilia and Connor Maytnier Student Representatives to the Alumni Board of Governors: Hunter Estes, Anthony Fadil, Ben Germano, and Nicole Lam The following pages contain a list of our successes over the past seven months and our priorities for the remaining four months of our administration. They are organized alphabetically by category, with the most exciting or important projects bolded in each section. You can find more information or contact us at www.gustudentassociation.org. Academic Affairs What we’ve done so far: • Conducted a survey asking about student priorities for academic reform • Met with administrators to explore options for expanding academic credit for internships • Met with the Registrar regarding skills tagging and pre-registration/live registration • Collaborated with the GUSA Race and Cultural Inclusivity Team to host a Diversity Requirement Town Hall • Collaborated with the GUSA Mental Health Team to evaluate existing policies surrounding medical leaves of absence What we’re prioritizing for the rest of our term: • Presenting a formal proposal to the administration to expand internship credit opportunities • Addressing potential changes to course registration policy while protecting student interests • Addressing registration policies for students on medical leaves of absence Accessibility What we’ve done so far: • Continued providing funding for the annual Disability Studies Lecture Series • Advocated for the expansion of the Disability Course Cluster and taken steps towards creating a Disability Studies Minor and/or Certificate Program, while ensuring that existing Disability Studies courses are cross-listed for the Diversity Requirement • Successfully pushed the Office of Planning and Facilities Management to offer a way for students to designate facilities requests that present accessibility problems as high-priority • Begun drafting a list of shared commitments with the Division of Student Affairs that addresses barriers to accessibility, including commitments to hire new full-time staff members at the Academic Resource Center and expand the Center’s space within the next few years • Secured additional staff at the Academic Resource Center for the fall semester of this year • Hosted an event with actress and disability rights activist Ali Stroker, which was co-hosted by the Lecture Fund What we’re prioritizing for the rest of our term: • Engaging Blue & Gray leadership in promoting Georgetown’s accessibility resources on campus tours • Compiling a clear list of the best language for students to use while discussing accessibility, and distributing it amongst GUSA, Blue & Gray tour guides, SAC groups, and other relevant student organizations • Working with off-campus restaurants and stores in the Georgetown neighborhood, such as The Tombs, to address and gather information on storefront accessibility, in order to compile a guide on neighborhood accessibility that can be disseminated through the Academic Resource Center • Publishing a new campus accessibility map and working with the Georgetown administration to more effectively publish it on their official website • Finalizing the document of shared commitments on campus accessibility between GUSA and the administration by winter break Arts What we’ve done so far: • Hosted a Hoya Roundtable on the Arts in April • Began hosting semi-regular Arts Forums for students across different arts mediums to discuss shared issues (two in the spring and one on November 15) • Worked with different arts groups on campus to come together for additional forms of communication • Begun planning for Arts week in March 2017 • Made art display spaces in the HFSC reservation calendar public to students, and designated additional space in the HFSC to display student art What we’re prioritizing for the rest of our term: • Making space in Davis Center for the Performing Arts reservation calendars public to students, using the model of the HFSC calendar • Collaborating with the Georgetown University Collective of Creative Individuals to institute art shares through partnerships with GUSA • Creating (mandatory) workshops for PAAC groups once a semester open to the general public • Installing a permanent art gallery in the HFSC (with the one installed during Arts Week as the model, inviting Art & Art History Department students as well as freelance artists to submit work) • Forming an Arts Week Committee in December and finalizing plans for an Arts Week in the spring semester Athletic Affairs What we’ve done so far: • Secured permanent funding from the Division of Student Affairs for the club sports athletic trainer salary, so that it will be largely funded by the administration rather than the student activities fee • Secured permanent office space in the Yates Field House for the club sports athletic trainer • Worked closely with the Office of Community Engagement to secure adequate off- campus field space for club sports while Kehoe Field is closed, successfully gaining limited access to Duke Ellington Field and the field at the Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School • Advocated for a major short-term renovation of Kehoe Field to make it usable for the 10 to 15 years before an eventual long-term renovation takes place, including a petition among club sports athletes and a presentation to the Board of Directors What we’re prioritizing for the rest of our term: • Securing locker room use and equipment storage space for the varsity tennis team in the Thompson Athletic Center • Continuing to support student efforts regarding the university’s contract with Nike and their labor practices • Working with the Office of Planning and Facilities Management on the design and planning processes for a renovation of Kehoe Field next academic year • Working towards final approval for a short-term renovation of Kehoe Field at the winter meetings of the Board of Directors and Board of Regents • Working with the Center for Student Engagement to ensure club sports teams’ ability to use of adequate off-campus field space leading up to a renovation of Kehoe Field Dining & Auxiliary Services What we’ve done so far: • Hosted a dining town hall and student food forum with key administrators • Successfully implemented several long-desired dining reforms for this academic year, including: • A permanent meal exchange program at Cosi, Hoya Court, and the Market Pod • The ability to add unlimited flex dollars to meal plans • The ability to use the mobile app Tapingo to pre-order meals at Aramark locations • Reusable to-go containers at Leo’s • Expanded hours at meal-plan accessible locations including Hoya Court and Leo’s • Increased variety and brand new options at Grab-and-Go locations • Worked closely with the university throughout the dining contract request-for-proposal and selection process, successfully securing the following student priorities in the university’s next ten-year dining contract: • Up to 3 meal exchanges per day, 7 days per week, all day at 11 different retail locations • Flex dollars can still be used at Epi and The Corp locations (unlike some vendor proposals) • Leo’s will be completely renovated by the next academic year • The upstairs floor will have retail options with meal exchanges (like Hoya Court) • The downstairs floor will be all-you-can-eat and will be managed by a new program, the Fresh Food Company • New and upgraded locations at Hoya Court • All dining workers will keep their jobs • Guest meal swipes will increase from 2 per semester to 5 • Worked with Auxiliary Business Services to host student open houses with bidding dining vendors during the contract selection process • Worked with the University to select Barnes and Noble as the new bookstore vendor What we’re