Updated at 1 a.m.
This post was written by Hatchet Staff Writer Amanda D’Ambra.
As students vote for next year’s Student Association leaders, the current SA administration is still without a leader for its main dining advocacy body.
Two months have passed since Kim Neu, the former chair of the Dining Services Commission, resigned her post. Without a leader, the commission has not met to advocate for dining issues or otherwise address the students’ perennial dining complaints.
Current Student Association President Julie Bindelglass said in an e-mail last week that one person has applied for the position and the application is still open.
“We hope to fill the position as soon as humanly possible for this semester,” Bindelglass said. “This appointment will only be good through the end of my term and then the new SA president will interview and appoint a new DSC Chair.”
Despite the vacancy, Bindelglass said she does not believe the Student Association is ignoring dining issues.
“I really want to emphasize that while the position is temporarily vacant, dining is not being ignored,” she said. “Just these past two weeks, in fact, I along with other SA members helped to coordinate some students to participate in a series of focus groups aimed at improving J Steet, sponsored by Campus Support Services and Sodexo.”
Bindelglass chose sophomore Neu last year after Neu applied for a different cabinet position. Neu resigned at the end of last semester after making only minor changes to dining at GW, including adding a microwave to J Street. She did not return requests for comment.
Dining issues were mentioned during Monday’s Hatchet-SA debate as an area of the University that has seen little to no progress this year.
Chris Franzetti, the commission’s chair last year, said students deserve action on dining issues, despite difficulties in finding a replacement.
“It has been a semester and a quarter now without action on dining issues, and we still don’t have a representative,” Franzetti said. Franzetti is currently running for the Marvin Center Governing Board.
Bindelglass says she is “confident” she will find a student to chair the commission for the remainder of the semester.
“I am confident that we will find someone to fill this void, especially because it is such an important issue to students on campus,” she said.
Editor’s Note: This article was updated to reflect that Bindelglass, as well as other members of the Student Association, helped organize and participated in focus groups about dining issues on campus.