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.