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

Taking All the Fun(ds) Out of GUSA

The members of the Student Leadership Reform Group should take note. Without anyone even noticing, GUSA President Ron Palmese (MSB ’00), with the help of Benny Adler (MSB ’00) and Pete Corsell (SFS ’00), are on the verge of reinventing the student power structure at Georgetown. They have proposed that corporate funds, raised by students, be allocated through a new organization to be called the Georgetown Funding Commission. This group will be comprised of the leaders of nine of Georgetown’s various student clubs and organizations.

Upon hearing this at Wednesday night’s GUSA meeting, many of the representatives blinked as our little remaining power went rushing out the open doors of the MBNA Career Center conference room. Some asked questions of Adler in an effort to understand just how little say we, as GUSA representatives have over this organization and its actions. No, GUSA cannot have its representatives on the GFC. No, GUSA cannot raise its own money to distribute. No, the GFC board members are not negotiable. And, no, there is nothing that GUSA can do to stop this once Dean of Students James A. Donahue signs the GFC constitution early next week.

The history of GUSA’s relationship with funding is boring and complex. Suffice to say that it once had control over student money. It no longer does, for many good reasons. Money and politics in the hands of students can lead to acting without discretion. Additionally, when funding was controlled by GUSA, campus groups had a tendency to elect their own leaders to student government so that they would return triumphantly bearing gifts of funding. (Yes, I know we’re all shocked to hear that pork-barrel politics exists even on college campuses.)

At first glance, it looks like the GFC could be susceptible to this problem, with the added bonus that its board members do not even have to be elected by the general student population and are therefore accountable to no one other than their own clubs.

But, the potential problems with the day-to-day operation of the GFC are not really my focus. More to the point is that the body that supposedly represents student interests will, upon the creation of the GFC, lose its final shred of legitimacy. For, as is commonly known, with money comes power.

As long as student funding has been controlled by the GUSA-appointed Student Activities Commission, GUSA itself has had minimal competition for power. Because SAC commissioners represent the interests of clubs and organizations that they are not members of, the university administration has chosen to continue to encourage GUSA in its role as representatives of the student body. I say “chosen” because, without money to distribute, there is very little that causes students to want to support their government and thus almost no reason for the administration to listen to it.

The GFC has the potential to reduce GUSA to a body whose sole power lies in appointments to various boards on campus. Once student groups recognize that there is actually someone on campus that they can turn to for help, they will forsake and attack GUSA with even more ferocity than has become standard for a disillusioned student body. For GUSA, the danger of the GFC is not disillusionment, but reillusionment.

Students might begin to believe that it is possible for their own little club to put on events, to organize charity drives and yes, even to take on the administration. This comes with freedom. As long as student groups receive money from the university, they dare not bite the hand that feeds them. However, once they are eating on their own, they will realize that they can bite at anything they damn well please. And maybe that is how it should be.

A student government is not, contrary to popular belief, established by a constitution. It is established by the support of students. GUSA has very little support, and the GFC is wielding a blade that could bring students en masse. Is that bad? I don’t know. The potential for mismanagement and abuse of power is present. As is the potential for an incredibly effective student organization, the likes of which have not been seen on Georgetown’s campus since The Yard. The only thing that is certain is that the potential for massive changes to Georgetown’s power structure are at the door and no one even seems to realize it.

Jon Yeatman is a GUSA senior class representative and a student in the McDonough School of Business.

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