Student Association President Audai Shakour clashed with members of the Senate leadership at a Monday forum over fighting for student representation on the Board of Trustees.
The town-hall-style event, held in the Jack Morton Auditorium, welcomed about 30 people, mostly SA functionaries, and was organized by campus radio station WRGW. It held a similar event in April.
At the meeting, Shakour, a senior, was questioned about this Friday’s Board of Trustees meeting where members could consider a request to put a student representative on the board. While SA Senate leaders campaigned last May on advocating for a student on the board, Shakour said devoting time to the issue is not the most effective use of SA energy. The board’s leaders came out last year against adding a student representative.
“I feel that a Student Association which contributes such a great deal of its time and energy on the issue of students on the Board of Trustees is not in fact a Student Association which is using its energy to best serve students,” Shakour wrote in an opinion piece to The Hatchet last week that he later requested not be published in full.
In April, the student body voted to pass a referendum calling for the SA president to appoint a student representative to the Board of Trustees, a group that makes long-term decisions about the University and approves tuition rates. Shakour, who is bound by the SA constitution to appoint at least one student representative to the board, announced Wednesday night that former SA president and first-year graduate student Omar Woodard and junior John Och are his nominees. Och is Sharkour’s vice president for academic affairs.
Shakour’s nominations do not grant the students seats on the board, and the only way representation would take effect is if the board amends its bylaws. In the spring, Charles Manatt, chairman of the Board of Trustees, said he does not support having a student on the board.
“These students will look to the long-term future of the University and that is a huge responsibility and liability, as it may be hard for the student to see GW in long-term interest,” Shakour said Monday. “They need to be very mature and understanding of the landscape of GW.”
SA Executive Vice President Morgan Corr, a junior, who last year campaigned on a platform of fighting for a student on the board, said he disagreed with Shakour on how the SA should devote its energy in fighting for the student representative.
“It is a basic democratic principle that students should have a say in their government,” Corr said.
Chris Rotella (CCAS-U), chairman of the SA Senate Rules Committee, said Monday that the committee looks forward to interviewing nominees for the position.During the nearly two-hour event Monday night, Shakour also announced a plan to raise the student fee to $2 per credit hour. The current fee of $1 per credit hour equates to $15 per semester for students taking five three-credit courses. The money is given to the SA to fund student organizations and finance the operating budgets of the SA branches. Shakour proposed a $1-per-credit- hour increase, which would take effect in spring 2006 if passed by the SA this month.
Shakour’s proposal also calls for a 10-cent increase every year beginning in fall 2007 to account for inflation. The proposal, which has been referred to the Senate Rules Committee, must be approved by the full SA Senate and then, if passed, voted on by students this November in a special election.
Another major topic discussed Monday evening was the health and safety inspections conducted by the University’s Office of Risk Management. On Monday, The Hatchet reported that a private company has been contracted by the University to conduct inspections, and once items deemed unsafe have been confiscated from students’ rooms, they cannot be reclaimed.
Jon Ostrower, publicity director for the Residence Hall Association, said he supports the University’s effort to try to keep dorms as safe as possible.
Corr disagreed, describing the action as invasive.
Corr said, “It is ridiculous that students have had property taken.”
-Brandon Butler contributed to this report.
