The Student Association finance committee chair announced his candidacy for student body president Monday, pledging to create an affirmative consent policy at GW if elected.
Sen. Ben Pryde, U-At-Large, is the first to announce his candidacy for president, which comes five weeks before the election. Pryde, who has served on the SA Senate for three years, said addressing sexual violence on campus is important because current campus policies are “unclear.”
The junior said an affirmative consent policy would look similar to ones in place at schools across the country, including all public and private nonprofit universities in California. It would require that one partner receive verbal consent from the other before engaging in any sexual act or escalating to another act.
“Unless a person says no, it should be the other way around — assuming the answer is no, unless the person is able to say yes and is not under influence of drugs or alcohol,” Pryde said. “So it would eliminate a lot of gray area.”
He said he will speak with administrators like Title IX Coordinator Rory Muhammad and student organizations like Students Against Sexual Assault to work on the wording of the policy. He is not a member of the campus sexual assault awareness group.
Pryde is double-majoring in political science and economics and double-minoring in business administration and sustainability. He is also in the University Honors Program, and is a member of Beta Theta Pi fraternity.
As finance committee chair, he is responsible for leading a handful of SA senators who divvy up more than $1 million in student funding each year. That makes him recognizable to most student leaders, especially those who go through the funding appeals process. His sophomore year, he served as the vice chair of the finance committee in addition to serving as vice chair of the leadership committee.
Pryde was also a member of the Resident Hall Association, and he served as treasurer during his sophomore year. The same year, he designed and built a solar-powered generator and table in Square 80 that students can use to charge laptops and cell phones while working outside.
Senior Zachary Ruckert, Pryde’s campaign manager, said Pryde will look into creating more diverse housing options for students, including increasing the number of affinities available and finding more educational tie-ins among those groups.
He said Pryde will work with administrators from the Division of Student Affairs to figure out how to best make those changes.
“In the past, it’s been groups of students getting together based on a common interest, so whether that means putting a professor who can act as a faculty-in-residence with them or making it more than just students living together,” Ruckert said.
Pryde said he would also focus on making on-campus housing more affordable for students, but has not yet identified any specific policies he would like to address.
“Where you live has a big impact on your happiness, your mental health and kind of just your overall college experience,” Pryde said.
The Seattle native added that he will follow through on the implementation of the peer counseling program that University President Steven Knapp approved earlier this year.
Current President Nick Gumas campaigned for the student-run program last year. He and top administrators like Associate Dean of Students Mark Levine and University Counseling Center Director Silvio Weisner will plan out the program over the next couple of months, along with other faculty, staff and students.
“The peer-support counseling program was approved by the University earlier this year, but that’s only half the battle,” Pryde said. “The other half is making sure it’s implemented properly.”
He said he will seek student feedback about training peer counselors, finding an official to lead the program and making sure that Gumas’ vision remains intact.
Ruckert said Pryde was also working to make sure Corcoran School of the Arts and Design facilities and the new Science and Engineering Hall are always accessible to students. And with the Sodexo contract up for renewal at the end of the year, he said Pryde will reach out to student organizations for their ideas.
“He wants to make sure student voices are heard on what’s going into the Marvin Center following the Sodexo contract, to make sure that their input is considered,” Ruckert said.
