Updated: Aug. 19, 2019 at 2:47 p.m.
Student Association leaders spent summer break gaining momentum on projects the organization began last year.
Leaders said they spent the summer working with students and officials to continue projects or goals that the organization’s members advocated for last semester, like revamping student spaces, switching GW’s Colonials nickname and pushing for more graduate student representation.
SA President SJ Matthews said she and SA Executive Vice President Amy Martin have been in talks with Division of Operations officials this summer about revamping student spaces like Anniversary Park and the Marvin Center third floor terrace. Matthews said officials are currently removing overgrown trees and expanding the patio in Anniversary Park, which sits on F Street between 21st and 22nd streets.
“When students go in there, they are going to feel like it was made better for them and feel more welcome, instead of being on dirt and old overgrown trees hanging over you,” Matthews said. “It is going to a nice open area, a nice open space for events.”
Matthews added that she and Martin also helped redesign the Marvin Center’s third floor terrace, which will be open in three to four weeks, with Adirondack sectional couches. The SA has been advocating for officials to build up the third floor terrace for student use since at least 2013.
Martin said the SA wanted to be involved in terrace renovations because the space is rarely used. She said the SA will hold an event in the space during Welcome Week and encourage other student organizations to use the area for its own events.
“It is a nice little outdoor space that just doesn’t get used that often,” Martin said. “So we’re hoping this will change that.”
SA Sen. André Gonzales, CCAS-U and the SA senate pro-tempore, said he met with officials and spoke with students who are advocating to change the University’s Colonials nickname. Gonzales co-sponsored a resolution that placed a referendum about nixing the name on the SA’s election ballot in March, which passed with more than half of students voting in favor of the change.
“This summer I think my main focus has been looking at how that referendum did pass, working with different administrators, working to figure out now that this has passed, what is the path forward?” he said. “How do we honor what students are saying with this referendum, and how do we make sure that we are including all of these stakeholders in these discussions so that we can really have some tangible actions and show that students are being heard on this campus?”
Gonzales said he and other student leaders met with officials from the athletic department and the Office of Alumni Relations over the summer to continue conversations about students’ efforts to change the nickname. He said that since the referendum passed, the University has still not publicly acknowledged the vote.
He did not specify who the representatives were and declined to comment about what the conversations entailed.
Gonzales said he familiarized himself with the SA’s constitution, charter and bylaws to better answer SA members’ questions this year. He said that he is responsible for answering questions about the governing documents as the senate’s pro-tempore.
Gonzales said he asked other SA members for advice on how to interpret the documents, but he focused on developing his own opinions.
“As pro-tempore, it’s also my job to be that referee to say, ‘This is how the constitution or the bylaws read, here’s how I interpret it and here’s how we need to honor it,’” he said.
SA Sen. AJ Link, Law-G, said he worked with other members of the SA this summer to gather and distribute flyers to students with contact information for the organization’s two law school senators and the the vice president of graduate policy at the law school’s orientation, which took place last week.
Link said the flyers included a link to the SA’s website that details information about topics like graduate student housing, meal deals and information about specific graduate schools.
Link filed a complaint with the Student Court in April claiming the SA allegedly failed to adequately represent graduate students because the organization allotted undergraduate students more senate seats than graduate students. He said providing information to graduate students, through methods like flyers, is a first step toward getting more graduate students involved with the SA.
“As a senator, I’m constantly fighting for graduate students to make sure they have more representation and to make sure they’re more involved and get more information about what’s going on at GW as a whole,” Link said.
Shannon Mallard contributed reporting.
Editor’s note: this post was updated to clarify a quote from Andre Gonzales.
