SA Senate Addresses Undergraduate Admissions Policy, Student Organization Allocations at Latest Meeting

By McKinley Kant and Joe F. Paolicelli

The GW Student Association Senate met for the third straight week in November in the School of Media and Public Affairs building to hear from Senior Associate Provost for Enrollment Management Laurie Koehler about the university’s “need-aware” admissions practice.

Provost Koehler, who admitted last month that the university had been falsely advertising its undergraduate admissions process as “need-blind” for years even though some applicants’ financial information was taken into account when making a final admission decision, told the Senate that the Office of Admissions has taken steps to accurately communicate its practices.

Koehler said the Office of Admissions has taken steps to include more information on the undergraduate admissions website and hold additional staff training.

“At the request of President Steven Knapp, I’ve spent a great deal of time trying to engage in conversations with our current admissions staff, current administrators, reviewing our admissions print and online materials, to try to gauge what happened,” Koehler said.

“I did, regrettably, identify occasions where we were not as accurate as we should have been.”

In response to a question by Sen. Ryan Counihan (SoB-U) Koehler said the Office of Admissions has not changed the way it admits and denies students and continues to emphasize a holistic approach.

After the conclusion of Koehler’s statement and questions from the senators, the Senate unanimously passed a bill approving fall allocations for approximately 40 new student organizations. Senator Counihan, chair of the finance committee, reported the committee had just under $200,000 remaining in their co-sponsorship fund after approving funding for the Parliamentary Debate Society to host a tournament and the Engineer’s Council to host an app development workshop.

Senator Counihan also reported that funding reviews had determined that catering by Sodexo for student organizations had almost doubled in cost over the course of a year. He gave an example of an event hosted by the College Democrats where, for the same event and food, the cost went from $392 last year to $754 this year, and increase of over 90%.

“It’s something we’re looking into,” Senator Counihan promised the other senators.

The Senate welcomed a new member during the session, electing Vinu Varghese as the graduate senator from the School of Business. In his appeal for support, Varghese said he was interested in increasing networking between student organizations, as well as between undergraduate and graduate students.

The Senate will have its final meeting before the new calendar year on December 2, the Monday immediately following Thanksgiving break.

SA Senate Calls for Increased Transparency in University’s Admissions Process

BY MCKINLEY KANT

The Student Association Senate met Monday evening in the Grand Ballroom of the Marvin Center to pass a resolution in response to the university’s admission that the Office of Admissions sometimes takes into account applicants’ financial aid statuses when deciding whether or not to admit them.

The Senate passed the Administration Transparency Act, co-sponsored by Sens. Ryan Counihan, Nick Gumas and Ben Pryde, around 40 minutes after the Senate invoked a rare executive session, where they asked members of the public to leave.

“I’m tired of this sentiment of finding out that the university screwed up again and saying there’s nothing we can do about it,”  Counihan said.

Many non-undergraduate senators voted ‘present’ because they felt uncomfortable voting on a resolution pertaining only to the undergraduate admissions office.

Others questioned the reasoning behind the resolution.

“I’m concerned that [the resolution] could be interpreted in a negative light,” Senator Daniel Egel-Weiss said. “I want to commend the university for coming forward and being honest.”

The resolution does commend the university for coming forward, though it firmly states that the Undergraduate Office of Admissions must take clear steps toward better transparency.

Event Organizers Look To Move-On After Gorbachev Cancels GW Event

By Andrew Desiderio

Former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev last Thursday canceled his upcoming visit to GW on October 1st due to health reasons.  The cancellation came just days after The School of Media and Public Affairs and the Media Student Community Council (MSCC), one of the event's co-sponsors, announced that SMPA Director Frank Sesno would interview Gorbachev in Lisner Auditorium. 

Now, SMPA and the Media Student Community Council, who spent months planning the event, are determined to move forward.

“President Gorbachev is welcome to appear at GW at any time, and we await word from his agency on when that may occur,” said Samara Sit, the Director of Administration and Special Projects for SMPA.

Gorbachev recently backed out of other events for health reasons, including Margaret Thatcher’s funeral in April.

The former Soviet leader was also supposed to speak at Principia College in Illinois on Oct. 3^rd, just two days after he planned on speaking at GW. GW would have been Gorbachev’s only DC stop on his US tour.

Student reaction across campus has been one of disappointment.  

“I’m a little bit disappointed, but I understand the circumstances," said Jonathan Adams, a Columbian College Freshman.  "I’m sure there will be an opportunity for him to return sometime in the future. I wish him the best with his health.” 

The Media Student Community Council was surprised by the news but is quickly looking to move forward.

“I speak for myself as well as the rest of the MSCC E-board when I say that we were utterly devastated by today’s news,” John Torrisi, chairman of MSCC, wrote in an email to members.

Torrisi, a GW senior in SMPA, attempted to lift members’ spirits.  

“We will work diligently with SMPA to replace this event with a bigger and better one later this school year.”

Despite the apparent disappointment around campus, Torrisi assured MSCC members that the organization’s goal is to bring another world-class speaker to GW. 

“I promise you that we will work tirelessly to achieve it.”

In the email sent to members, there is a link to a survey that asks members to name current or former Heads of State they would like to see speak on campus.  

In the first Student Association Senate meeting of the academic year on September 9th  SA Finance Chair Ryan Counihan reported that the Student Association had contributed thousands of dollars for the Gorbachev event.  Counihan told WRGW News, though, that there is no policy in place that the event either needs be replaced or the money needs to be returned.  However, he would not comment further about what would happen with the money until the next Student Association Senate Meeting, which will be on October 7th. 

McKinley Kant and Myles Goldman contributed to this report.  

Student Association Presses for Student Space

by Myles Goldman

The Student Association had its shortest meeting of the year Monday night but found time to pass a comprehensive Student space bill.

The bill titled, "Student Space Campaign Act" passed unanimously in a meeting that only lasted about 40 minutes.  The bill voices support for the student space campaign proposal SA President Ashwin Narla released last week.  http://www.wrgwnews.com/2013/01/student-association-proposes-new.html

"Calling on a firm commitment from The George Washington University Board of Trustees, President and Administration to making Student Space a priority," the bill states, "and laying out in the next semester a timeline for University investment in Student Space," it states.

The SA has spent the last week trying to rally support for the bill.  On Tuesday night SA Senators and members of Narla's Cabinet went dorm storming with a petition urging students to sign and show their support.  On Thursday from 12-2 there will be a rally for the bill in Kogan plaza.  Free food will be served, and the SA is expecting 1600 students will attend.

The SA's goal is to collect 5,000 student signatures on the petition that Narla plans to bring to the Board of Trustees when they meet next week.

Senator Ryan Counihan (SOB-U), the bill's sponsor, says this year's SA is addressing the student space issue more directly with administrators.

"We've played nice [with the Administration] for a year-and-a-half, but at this point we're rethinking our strategy," he said.

At the meeting approximately 14 Senators were absent, most likely due to rush week for fraternities and class conflicts.  Additionally, the SA invited student organization leaders to attend the meeting to talk about student space and tried to entice them with free food but it appeared that very few organization leaders attended.

In other news from the meeting it was announced that Student Association elections will likely be held the first week after spring break.  The JEC will make the final decision in the next week or two.

Student Association Passes Student Life Resolution

By Myles Goldman

At the final meeting of the semester on Monday night, The Student Association Senate again took up the issue of Square 75A, the area on Pennsylvania Avenue the University is currently in the process of requesting approval to develop.  Currently, restaurants like Mayran and Froggy Bottom Pub reside at the location and will be forced to close once the University begins the project.  

After rejecting a similar resolution by a vote of 8 in favor 9 against and 10 abstaining, the Student Association passed a “Resolution Regarding the The George Washington University’s Current Proposed Development for Square 75A.”  The resolution passed 22-4, and says that the Student Association wants Square 75A to include affordable, local restaurant establishments in the developed property.  

According to Executive Vice President of Community Affairs, Patrick Kennedy, who worked with Senators to write the bill, the difference between the bill the Senate rejected three weeks ago and the one they approved was a small but important one. 

"We are more proactively [than in the previous version] encouraging a component of this project," Kennedy said.


There was much debate about the amendment, though.  Proponents such as the bill’s author Elizabeth Kennedy (Undergrad-At-Large) said that students had come to her and said how much they would miss the restaurants that would be going out.  She believed the bill was focused on student life. Kennedy said this was the bill she was most passionate about in her three years as a Senator. 

"This is what our jobs are about," Kennedy said. "We are here to represent the student body."

The bill was also supported by SA President Ashwin Narla.

"We really need to have something for the student experience," Narla said. "This is us as students advocating for something we've heard from the student body. We hope that a decision to find a new retailer is student friendly," he commented during his President's Report.

Opponents of the bill were concerned about the loss of revenue to the University and the tone of the resolution.  Ryan Counihan (Undergrad-SOB) was one of the Senators who voted against the bill. Counihan was concerned about the amount of money the University might lose that it could spend on areas like academics renting the newly developed property to a local, low-cost restaurant versus renting out the building to the highest-bidder.

"If we're talking millions of dollars [the University could lose], I don't think we should be trying to force the University to give that up," Counihan argued.

Elizabeth Kennedy tried to address concerns about the tone of the bill. At the prior meeting, Alicia Knight Senior Associate Vice President for the Division of Operations, had expressed her surprise that the Student Association had proposed the resolution addressing square 75A. Kennedy said on Monday night that she and the bills co-sponsors had spent three months preparing the bill.

"This was something she [Knight] knew was coming," Kennedy said. "She might have been initially taken aback by our interest in Square 75A since the SA has not proactively taken a role on projects like this in the past, but this bill itself wasn't a surprise to them [the administration]," she commented.

John Ralls, the Senior Associate Vice President for Operations Administration, representing the Division of Operations, was sitting in the audience and could be seen shaking his head when Kennedy made her comments. Senator Michael Amesquita (Grad-GSEHD) attempted to motion to give Ralls an opportunity to respond but Vice President Abby Bergren ruled the motion out of order since a Senator can only give-up their speaking time to other Senators or members of the SA President's Cabinet. Ralls could not later be reached for comment.

At the meeting the Senate also passed unanimously "A Resolution to Urge The George Washington University to Adopt the Consumer Protection Financial Bureau Shopping Sheet." The resolution calls on the University to use the college "shopping sheet" the Federal Government has created as part of the Consumer Protection Financial Bureau. The sheet includes info about cost, graduation rates, and loans and allows students to compare these statistics among different colleges according to the bill's author Omeed Firouzi (Undergrad-CCAS).

Narla also announced at the meeting the creation of an ad-hoc council that will look at the SA's student organization financial allocation process. The 12-member council will meet starting next semester and will consist of 6 SA Senators and Presidential cabinet members and 6 members made-up from the student body at-large. The council will then make recommendations on how the process can be improved to the SA Senate. The SA is now accepting applications from students who are interested in being part of the council.