Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Academic Councils Hold Elections

Academic council elections took place across all four undergraduate schools this week, and the winners have already begun planning for the upcoming year.

The College Academic Council elections results were released on April 23, with two new sophomore class representatives and two new junior class representatives joining the its ranks.

According to incoming sophomore representative Dan Silkman (COL ’15), who served as freshman representative this year, the College Academic Council has big plans for the upcoming year.

One initiative is the introduction of a printing plan option that would be included in tuition, similar to the NHS and MSB models.

College students would pay $75 every semester in exchange for 1,000 prints, redeemable at Lauinger Library or any University Information Services printing station. Silkman said that the CAC is planning to speak with the SFS Academic Council to discuss extending this option to students of both schools.

This past year, the CAC also updated its website as part of an effort to make academic council websites as uniform as possible across the four undergraduate schools.

During this transitional period, additional plans for the upcoming year are still taking shape.

“Reflecting on what we did this year or what we haven’t done this year is a conversation started within the last few months,” Silkman said.

The executive board of the CAC will be chosen internally next Sunday.

According to incoming SFS Academic Council President Jon Askonas (SFS ’13), the SFS Academic Council also has ambitious plans for the upcoming year, with about three-quarters of the current members returning.

His main focus is increasing course flexibility for SFS students and introducing humanities and business minors. Askonas also hopes to decrease the SFS economics requirement from four to three courses by allowing students to take Econ 003, an introduction to both macro- and microeconomics.

“Most of the policy on the platform has already been discussed with the Dean’s office,” Askonas said. “It’s very accomplishable.”
Scott Wisniewski (NHS ’13) and Katie Dunn (NHS ’13) were elected as NHS Academic Council co-chairs.

According to Wisniewski, the NHS council will focus on increasing faculty-student interaction next semester. While the NHS Academic Council has held social events for both students and faculty in the past, Wisniewski also hopes to hold roundtables to provide a forum for an academically focused dialogue and to continue to expand a project from last year that supported St. Aloysius Gonzaga, a Jesuit school for AIDS orphans in Kenya.

“We’re excited to bring the community service aspect back,” Wisniewski said.

The MSB Academic Council also has extensive plans for the upcoming year, according to incoming sophomore representative Patrick Moore (MSB ’15), who served as freshman representative this year.

According to Moore, the focus will be on fundraising through events and through the Dean’s Office to increase programming for all MSB students, not just seniors.

“Now we’re looking to spread what we do over all grades,” he said.

Moore plans to institute a majors fair for incoming freshmen and hopes to increase the transparency of course requirements.

Next semester’s Academic Council leaders for each school are Scott Wisniewski (NHS ’13), Katie Dunn (NHS ’13), Jon Askonas (SFS ’13), Jared Coppotelli (MSB ’12) and Vanessa Magli (MSB ’12). The CAC president will be elected internally on Sunday.

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