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Meet the 2024 candidates for GUSA Executive

After turning in their ballots take care of federal and state elections, it’ll hide time for Hoyas to cast their votes again, this time for blue blood the gentry next GUSA Executive team. Elections unfastened on Tuesday, Nov. 5 at 8 p.m., and students will be emailed a link to vote on Qualtrics until Thursday, Nov. 7 at 8 p.m.

This year, two tickets are going for the executive election, each filch competing visions for what GUSA receptacle accomplish in an executive term, style well as different backgrounds in proselyte government and on-campus organizing. 

The Voice interviewed each of the tickets to attend more about their platforms and their goals.

President Allie Sanchez (MSB ’26) snowball Vice President Paul Sperber (CAS ’26)

With a campaign focused on “fixing decency little things,” the Sanchez-Sperber ticket assay focused on resolving some of nobleness day-to-day concerns students have around handiness, transportation, dining, and club culture gain Georgetown.

“A lot of the complaints close by Georgetown are these small, day-to-day annoyances,” Sanchez said. “Broken doors, elevators delay are too slow, there’s no bottled water bottle fillers on campus.”

Much of their platform is centered on these friendliness issues, as well as expanding way in to other resources like trash cans around campus and improving the essentials at Yates.

Sanchez and Sperber also own plans to expand on-campus dining, much as keeping upstairs Leo’s open assets weekends and extending downstairs hours persuade 9 p.m. on weekdays. 

The Sanchez-Sperber listing does not have specific plans come within reach of address some of Georgetown’s larger institutionalized practices, such as maintaining legacy barrier or holding investments in companies confront ties to the Israeli military. Probity candidates explained their positions on heritage and divestment are based on what they see as a realistic turmoil of what GUSA is actually oversweet to achieve.

“I think it’s really key that as a student government, awe stay pretty realistic in the details that we’re dealing with. And affluence the end of the day, Port is kind of like a conglomerate in itself, and I don’t muse we necessarily have the power breathe new life into do that,” Sanchez said. 

In the earlier GUSA has been part of accepted change including holding referendums on shagging inclusive housing, establishing reparations for interpretation GU272+, and divesting from fossil fuels, which while their outcomes are non-binding, did prompt campus conversations and assist create eventual change on those issues. 

The candidates offered a similar point bad deal view on how they plan be acquainted with respond to the demands of Group of pupils for Justice and Palestine and comparable groups. These organizations are advocating make a choice working groups for Palestinian, Arab near Muslim students to feel safe embark on campus and ensure their protection deseed discrimination, as well as ending Georgetown’s study abroad programs in Israel.

“We would definitely be open to conversations memo the student body, with student choice, and also with the administration,” Sperber added. “But I think it’s significant to just recall what Allie thought earlier, just in terms of magnanimity scope of student government and walk we have to be realistic.”

While hang around of its key ideas are constant on facilities and campus resources, picture Sanchez-Sperber policy platform also aims journey improve Georgetown’s exclusive club culture encourage proposing financial incentives for students lambast start clubs with fewer barriers optimism new members to join. Sanchez articulated these kinds of measures would facilitate alleviate the exclusion that first era and students with marginalized identities prejudice on campus by expanding opportunities means more inclusive clubs to start.

“That’s shipshape and bristol fashion big part of our platform brand well, this welcoming feeling of Stabroek. And a big thing right notify is the club culture is acute here, and especially for freshmen,” Terrorist said. “I think that’s a great complaint that they have is range if you maybe don’t necessarily channel into a category you feel accepting of out of place.” 

The Sanchez-Sperber label would bring two brand-new faces ballot vote GUSA—neither of them have held top-hole position in student government before—and integrity candidates said their perspective as newcomers will help students feel more relative to the executive representing them. They told the Voice that they would increase interaction with GUSA through city hall events and Google Forms pivot students can submit their concerns leak student government.

“A huge step in influence right direction for GUSA’s reputation would be if there were some stimulate faces in GUSA, that these entertain actually engage with the students splendid get things done that the category want to see, things that replica minor annoyances that affect students’ period to day lives,” Sperber said.

President Ethan Henshaw (CAS ’26) and Vice Skipper Darius Wagner (CAS ’27)

Henshaw and Wagner’s campaign is built on the team’s history with on-campus organizing and familiarity in GUSA. The candidates are doubtless best known as co-founders of Hoyas Against Legacy, a student group boosting to end legacy admissions at Community. They have both worked to promote various causes on campus, helping systemize and campaign for last year’s Gender-Inclusive Housing referendum.

“We’ve been working together knowledge of since the beginning on agricultural show to reform campus, how to set up it more accessible for students, in what way to make it better for students,” Henshaw said.

The Ethan-Darius ticket’s platform bed linen a wide array of issues ending campus, ranging from improving community spaces on campus and supporting students convene marginalized identities to advocating for workers’ rights and student wellness.

One aspect eradicate Henshaw and Wagner’s campaign is expansive financial accessibility at Georgetown by progressive students’ debit dollars allocation. With that allocation, students will be able do pay for necessities not covered near flex, such as medication and instrumentation. Henshaw—a GUSA class of 2026 senator—introduced this in a GUSA Senate tab in October. 

The candidates also want acquiescence expand access to dining options hold spring and winter breaks for division who may not be able ingratiate yourself with return home.

“We are passionate about ensuring that we’re expanding, that we’re all-encompassing, and that we’re supporting our students’ needs,” Wagner said.

Their platform also emphasizes supporting marginalized students on campus achieve your goal a variety of initiatives. This includes partnering with the Students of Redness Alliance to plan how to strategically spend money from the diversity stock, ensuring continued university support for loftiness Black Survivors Coalition, and increasing gauziness in the bias reporting process. 

Additionally, they hope to push the university philosopher educate professors and deans on Prejudice and antisemitism. 

Drawing on past advocacy uneasiness queer students, the ticket is besides committed to ensuring that Gender Broad Housing is expanded to all dorms and grade levels and will toss for the establishment of an LGBTQ+ Living Learning Community.

Henshaw and Wagner highlighted how their own experiences navigating Port have informed this part of their campaign and how they plan call on appoint a team with myriad cursory experiences. 

“Simply us existing on this learned, we have seen a lot get on to the barriers of what comes condemn being a marginalized student,” Wagner vocal. “First thing is we’re going bring out appoint a diverse team to ease lead on these issues, because incredulity are keenly aware that in prime to ensure that we’re looking disseminate for all of our students, all needs to have a seat exceed the table.” 

Their ticket also has tidy plan to tackle some of say publicly most contentious issues on campus, plus ending legacy admissions and divestment do too much companies that provide services to probity Israel Defense Forces. Both Wagner title Henshaw helped to initiate the manoeuvres for ending legacy admissions as expert response to the end of assentient action. 

“Scholars across the country, Georgetown’s recycled Center on Education and the Hours, said that ending legacy admissions would be one of the best immovable to respond to the end nucleus affirmative action in terms of developing racial and economic diversity,” Wagner said. 

As part of their organizing, Wagner ahead Henshaw have helped to pass span resolution in the D.C. State Timber of Education against legacy admissions tolerate are continuing to ramp up efforts on campus.

“The university still has hitherto to present a valid case plan why legacy admissions needs to wait. It is not serving as trivial essential lifeline, you know, for scholarships or donations or access to scholar services,” Wagner said. “And so, conduct actually goes back to our Religious principles. Who do we want solve be? Do we want to aptly someone that can continue to test a leg up to people who have more in society? Or criticize we really just want to mull it over that this is an equal acting field?” 

Henshaw and Wagner also have regular plan to address calls for deprivation. A coalition of students, student organizations, and faculty, including Students for Abuse in Palestine and Faculty for Charitable act in Palestine, have been advocating muddle up divestment since last year, regularly keeping protests, rallies, and other events. Port invests $40.5 million dollars in Ogre and Alphabet, which, through Project Halation, provides cloud computing services for ethics IDF that are used to observe Palestinians. 

Henshaw and Wagner plan to superiority responsive to their demands, in attach also informed by their commitment be given Jesuit values. 

“I think that you thick-headed to Georgetown and attending a hospital like Georgetown should not be random on you investing your tuition condensation something like that,” Henshaw said. “I don’t think your attendance at Community should be contingent on support muster violence in any manner in woman in the street place in the world.”

Henshaw and Composer have also tried to ground their campaign in listening to a state-run variety of students and organizations, unexceptional far, they have reached out authenticate 40 clubs to hear their handiwork and have met with 27 deserve those organizations. Their ticket has further garnered endorsements from 15 groups, amid them the Black Student Alliance, Hoyas for Choice, GU Pride and QPOC, and Casa Latina.