The Candidate
For the Students
What do I mean by
ACCOUNTABILITY?
Many of the issues we see students repeatedly reference as pain points of their GW experience are not new. They are issues that have been previously outlined, researched, and acknowledged by Administration and the SA. It is important that we now hold ourselves and the Administration accountable in our work to address these issues. We know the dining plans play a large role in food insecurity in terms of the limited choice, as well as a lack of diverse dining partner options and resources on budgeting. The market basket average for dining plan options is 8 plans, so even as we continue to expand our current model, we ignore the reality of the issue which is that our model itself is not reflective of the known best practice. We also see this in regards to institutional costs such as laundry, with the total cost of a load at GW being roughly double the market basket average and with many of our comparable schools providing laundry for free. In regards to issues of sustainability, the university has previously made many commitments towards sustainability that they have not followed all the way through on, and even then there is so much more that we can do. Additionally, with things like the Sustainable Investment Fund (SIF) it's important to remember that the original ask was full divestment. While we can and should celebrate the positives of SIF, we cannot allow this program to greenwash the endowment or excuse the fact that the university continues to ignore divestment asks. These are NOT new issues, these are student issues that continue to persist. It is time to make sure we are held accountable in addressing them.
What do I mean by
COMMUNITY?
A community is the sum of many pieces, there is nothing more important than our communities when it comes to student life. They are what help us and support us through our college experience. Community should be an egalitarian space, a place where every member feels valued. This is why it is so necessary to make sure the greater GW community is one that is inclusive and respectful of all students. One of the issues I heard repeatedly from Student organizations specifically was a lack of educational resources available in regards to Diversity and Inclusion. I have found that sometimes the best conversations on these topics are peer facilitated, and that is why I want to introduce a peer education program. I also want to continue the work started by students to push the conversation on Values Based titles and language here at GW. We can talk in circles about diversity and inclusion, but as long as the student center is named after a figure who was pro-segregation and as long as we still have buildings that are inaccessible to students with physical disabilities, we are not practicing what we preach.
What do I mean by
ACCESSIBILITY?
Academic Accessibility is vital to a successful college career. Financial burdens such as holds often pave the way to lower retention rates, as outlined by the University in a report from the Office for Academic planning. We also need to ensure accessibility University wide, particularly when it comes to the vern. One area I greatly prioritize as an individual is mental health, so when I found out that the vern only provides two hours of counseling every Wednesday, I was beyond frustrated. We cannot refer to the vern as fully integrated when we don't have things as basic as equitable health resources. When we look at student accessibility, we have to look at the big picture such as with holds, but we also can't forget the little details and costs that add up to the bigger problem. Things such as a lack of a single iClicker service force students to incur redundant costs. Additionally, accessibility of information and resources is key, particularly in regards to Title IX. Title IX resources need to not only be clarified on a broader scale as they continue to go through revisions, but on a smaller scale such as including the relevant information on syllabi like is currently done with DSS and by prioritizing simple things like the placement of Student Support Services within blackboard. Just like small problems can add up to create bigger issues, these smaller solutions can compound on each other to create a more accessible and transparent GW.