GW’s student body may possess few kindred traits, but it shares one defining factor — the desire to have our voices heard.
It is the Student Government Association’s vice president who serves as the binding force between senators, the SGA president and students. But to speak for the student body, its leader must understand its students and the governing body that seeks to serve them. With her experience as SGA Senate pro tempore, we believe sophomore Liz Stoddard — one of the two candidates running for the position — is the right person for the job.
Stoddard already has the experience of working with senators and SGA president, which avoids the need for extensive adjustment and training to fit the role. During her time in the SGA, she helped implement a women’s caucus and revised the ways that Title IX advertised its resources, ensuring students know and understand more about what the University can do for them.
But it’s not just that she has a resume in the SGA — experience is great, but success also stems from growth and accountability. During the editorial board’s discussions with Stoddard, she was open about what she had learned in the past year and how she was going to improve upon it. She admitted that at times she feels like she didn’t stand her ground on certain issues in the SGA Senate and might have yielded too much under the pressure from the vice president. But she said she has found her voice as senate pro tempore: the voice of someone who puts her foot down for students, with compassion and honesty.
If elected the presiding officer of the SGA Senate, Stoddard’s primary focus is to unify GW’s community by turning events, like organization fairs, Day of Nations and her proposed “Last Night for Seniors” tradition, into regular staples throughout the year. The lack of a unified GW culture — or one that aligns only with careerist mindsets — is no surprise to students, but Stoddard was the sole vice presidential candidate to raise the issue and offer a solution. Our editorial board has raised concerns about how isolated GW students can be, and we want leadership who sees that too.
Stoddard’s platform also included everyday fixes that would make GW students’ lives run more smoothly. Those included her “Fix-It knock” policy, where maintenance staff would notify students of scheduled visits to avoid surprises upon arrival, and make more late-night food options on GWorld open after 10 p.m. The SGA has been able to extend hours of University facilities in the past, so we feel this is within reach of what the SGA can do.
Stoddard also shone through in her knowledge and consideration of individual student groups. She proposed adding a designated women-only space in the Lerner Health and Wellness Center for one hour per week to offer Muslim women a space to exercise without their hijabs and make women in general feel more comfortable working out. We’re unsure this goal is feasible but such proposals demonstrate Stoddard’s familiarity with specific subgroups on campus. She also wants to offer one additional nonmeal plan meal per day for scholarship student-athletes and voiced a need for early breakfast options for student-athletes since many players start practice earlier than the typical weekday 7 a.m. open time for dining halls. She was the only candidate for vice president to mention athletics in her platform.
One of the things notably missing in Stoddard’s platform was free speech, but she explained that she perceives free speech as part of a “value system,” where students should be allowed to state their beliefs as long as they don’t include fighting words, threats or harassment — a stance she said she has been advocating for over the past year. This response was passionate, yet realistic. She didn’t agree with the way administration handled free expression, but she didn’t promise that she was going to completely change speech on campus. We appreciated this grounded approach to the issue, where instead of committing to an overhaul of campus speech policies, she worked in ideas to represent student voices across her platform.
She expressed discontent with the way the administration attempted to “shrink how we think of free speech on this campus” last year and pledged to continue to advocate for free expression, even if it “isn’t comfortable” or even “controversial.” When it came to the topic of GW Police Department arming, she explained that she believes officers should give up their guns before moving forward with the program and that officials should ask the community for their thoughts on the process. Our editorial board agrees.
We appreciated the optimism and ambition evident in the platform of Claire Avalos, Stoddard’s opponent and a second-year student and senator. But her implementation plans were less tangible as Stoddard’s, which makes us more skeptical in her ability to get platform points off the ground. Avalos’ proposal to cap tuition costs for lower-income students is an idea we love but it doesn’t seem within reach due to the SGA’s limited power and GW’s financial dependence on tuition. Another point of her platform was to increase diversity in the SGA — a noble goal, but one lacking details on the “how.”
Some of Stoddard’s platform points were likewise lofty, like adding a designated space for women at the gym or adding meal swipes to more nearby restaurants — an investment that many struggling local restaurants might not be able to afford. But Stoddard appears to have a broader overall understanding of the student body, the specific groups who might not get heard and the processes necessary to get stuff done.
Before Stoddard left the meeting, she said she wants every student to feel at least one change to their day-to-day life due to her actions as vice president. We believe she has the bob for that job.
The editorial board consists of Hatchet staff members and operates separately from the newsroom. This week’s staff editorial was written by Opinions Editor Andrea Mendoza-Melchor, based on discussions with Contributing Culture Editor Caitlin Kitson, Research Assistant Carly Cavanaugh, Copy Editor Lindsay Larson, Culture Editor Nick Perkins, Sports Columnist Sydney Heise and Contributing Opinions Editor Madie Turley.
