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AN INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER SERVING THE GW COMMUNITY SINCE 1904

The GW Hatchet

Serving the GW Community since 1904

The GW Hatchet

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SA releases goals for school year

While many students are taking a break from GW, Student Association President Vishal Aswani is still on campus this summer, taking steps to address campaign promises and goals for his presidency.

Aswani, a senior, said he is working hard on a myriad of different projects including the creation of an online test bank and increasing the amount of money for student organizations, which are included in his “Shared Vision” – an agenda for the upcoming year agreed upon by he and SA Executive Vice President Kyle Boyer.

“Kyle and I together have been running on full force since day one,” Aswani said. “We both are completely devoted to our positions and it will definitely pay off during the fall and spring semesters.”

Boyer, a junior, is also working on projects over the summer – including a student discount for Metro rides, which has been his main initiative since he was SA assistant vice president of community affairs last year.

“I am working with the administration to develop a plan of implementation for a possible Metro discount and or GWorld-SmarTrip integration,” Boyer said. “We are now in a phase in which the administrations of not only GW, but each (area school) really control how much progress is made.”

In the past, SA presidents have treated the summer months as an important time to accomplish many of their goals for their term since they have a smaller workload and administrators have more time to hear concerns, ideas and suggestions. Last year, former SA president Nicole Capp and EVP Brand Kroeger, both seniors, achieved several of their platform’s promises, including the addition of Safeway to the GWorld program and the return of GW Reads, a free newspaper service for students.

Although it is not listed in his platform, Aswani said another goal for his term is to change the negative perception GW students have towards the SA. The organization, which describes itself as a source of advocacy for student needs and determines funding for all student organizations, has often found itself immersed in controversy.

Aswani said he hopes to continue the largely scandal-free administration Capp and Kroeger began last year in order to further change student perception of the organization.

The SA leaders said the hot-button topic of arming University Police Department officers will also be an issue during the school year that they will address.

In the spring, UPD Chief Dolores Stafford recommended in a report she co-authored that campus police officers should be armed in order to better protect themselves and the campuses they serve. Aswani said he has not formed an opinion on arming UPD, but will lobby for whatever students feel is right.

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