Year: Junior
Major: International affairs
Hometown: San Diego, Calif.
Clubs/activities: Black Student Union member, GW College Democrats member, GW College Republicans member, Organization of Latino American Students member, Progressive Student Union member, Spoken Word Collective member
Previous SA experience: Director of Community Service of 2014‒2015 Cabinet, Student Rights and Responsibilities committee appointee
If not GW, where would you go to school?: I’m trying to do the best I can where I’m at.
Dream job: As long as I am traveling the world and helping as many people as I can in whatever way I can, I will be living my dream.
Dream Commencement speaker: President Obama because when we reach one million hours of collective community service, he’ll be obligated to speak.
Carvings or Gallery fries?: I’ll pass and just say, “eat healthier.”
Tinder bio: I would rather meet someone doing community service than on Tinder.
Tony Hart said he decided to run for Student Association president to show that candidates didn’t need to spend or have money to get the job.
Hart, a junior, said he wanted to run to change the culture of the SA. He said he felt frustrated when someone warned him about the cost of running a campaign.
“I took that as code for, ‘You’re too poor to run,’” Hart said. “That’s what really pushed me to throw my hat in the ring. I wanted to run for all the students who felt they were too poor or not popular enough to run.”
This year, campaign expenses are capped at $600, down from $1,000 last year.
Hart, an Egyptian-American, said a lot of students feel “disconnected” from the SA. He wants to bring more diversity not only to the SA, but across campus. Hart, who is Coptic Orthodox, said his family’s history has shown him why it’s important to advocate for underrepresented groups.
If he wins, Hart plans to push for renovations to the aging Multicultural Student Services Center including making the top floors handicap-accessible. Hart called the MSSC a “home away from home,” and said without that community he probably would have left GW.
The building saw some renovations in December and received small upgrades, like new couches and computers, last year.
“Without the MSSC, I most likely would have transferred or dropped out,” Hart said at a town hall for candidates on Wednesday.
Hart, who served as director of community service on former SA President Nick Gumas’ cabinet, said a signature part of his platform is to highlight community service: making the community service tracking program NobleHour easier to use and allowing Miriam’s Kitchen to train volunteers in the Marvin Center.
“I think a lot of Foggy Bottom and Foxhall neighbors see us as a burden, but we can be a huge asset to those communities,” Hart said.
Hart, a member of a group of students and administrators focused on sexual assault prevention education and a two-time resident adviser, said he wants to put sexual assault resources and information on the desk of every GW student when they arrive on campus in the fall.
Hart said he will also focus on making Mental Health Services more confidential for students, something on which current SA president Andie Dowd has also focused.
Editor’s note: Due to a family emergency, Student Association presidential candidate Tony Hart was not able to sit for a portrait for the SA election guide. He also was not able to sit for an endorsement hearing or a video interview. Because of The Hatchet’s print schedule and the timeline of the SA election, we decided to move forward with the guide.
