Year: Freshman
Hometown: Tucson, Arizona
Major: International affairs
Student organizations: Sunrise GW, Progressive Student Union, Students Against Imperialism, WRGW Radio Station
Previous SA Experience: None
Favorite GWorld spot: Abunai Poke
Favorite off-campus spot: Thip Khao
Dream job: Landscape architect, urban planner or teacher
Favorite childhood memory: Participating in summer reading programs
Proudest GW moment: Standing in Kogan and holding up a sign that said “LeBlanc should Resign, Change my Mind”
Fun fact: I adore awful, trashy movies like “The Room”
Favorite place in the world: The Sonoran Desert
Role model: My dad

Andy Liaupsin was compelled to run for Student Association executive vice president because GW can be an “amazing place,” but he said it’s not there yet.

Liaupsin, a freshman, said issues from the past year, like an instance when a police officer appeared to push a student down a flight of stairs and when LeBlanc made a racially insensitive comment toward black people, led him to feel “ashamed” of the University. He said he wants to spend his time in the SA position rallying for increased student pride and pressing for University President Thomas LeBlanc’s resignation.

“I don’t want to be ashamed of my school anymore,” he said. “I want to try and help make the changes that we as a student body can become less ashamed of [GW].”

Liaupsin said he has spent his first year on campus advocating alongside student organizations like the Progressive Student Union and Sunrise GW, which enabled him to talk with community members like maintenance workers. He said that despite the “privileges” in his life, he wants to raise the voices of underrepresented groups through a position in the SA.

In conversations with facilities workers, he said he has learned they are often underpaid and receive little appreciation from the GW community, issues that he promised to address by increasing compensation and covering transportation fees. He said that through the past year, he has also held appreciation dinners for workers in his capacity in PSU.

“Talking and spending time with people who make this University actually run was a really important moment for me in terms of realizing more of who I am politically, but also where my place in this University and how this University can really mistreat some people,” he said.

Liaupsin added that if elected, he would advocate for LeBlanc to resign, citing officials’ decision to end fixed tuition starting with next year’s class and LeBlanc’s “racist” comment. LeBlanc compared support for fossil fuel divestment to hypothetical support for shooting black people on campus earlier this semester, sparking multiple student protests.

“My platform already does just tie back to the fact that LeBlanc needs to go,” he said. “He says racist things. He has racist actions, it’s time for him to go.”