Freshmen needed

The potential of the Student Association cannot be underestimated. It has been and continues to be the strongest and most consistent voice of students in this University – our University. It allows us to enact and affect policy that reaches into every corner of student life here. From funding of student groups to Homecoming to moral leadership of the entire student body, the SA is a relevant and vital part of The George Washington University.

For that potential to be realized and continued beyond our short stays here, we need new minds, new ideas and new blood. In part, that is to be found in the freshmen who will be chosen for the two Senate seats designated for their class.

These positions carry tremendous weight and are vital in the leadership of the freshman class and the future leadership of the Student Association and through it, the student body.

Applications for these seats will be made available in the Student Association office (MC 424) and the final date for their submission has been extended to Sept. 15. I would urge all interested freshmen to submit an application.

-Phil MeisnerESIA undergraduate senator

Grad fee solution

I found it puzzling that no one offered a compromise solution regarding the fee increase for M.A. and Ph.D. students in the Columbian School (Ph.D. students fight CSAS fee increase, Aug. 31, p.1).

The proposed fee increase for continuing students working on theses or dissertations is scheduled to take effect next September – after I have finished all of my course work and will be working only on my thesis.

Although I can justifiably complain about the poor timing and size of the increase ($35 a semester to $680 a semester), the University has found a great new source of funds to tap and will doubtfully back down just because graduate students complain about how they don’t want to pay.

What I propose is fair and rational. If the University wants to increase the fee, it should do so for new graduate students starting next fall (or perhaps the delay in receiving funds from this source is too great for GW’s coffers).

If the amount of the fee is known to people who consider attending GW as a graduate student, they can consider it in their decision-making process. Perhaps they will choose another school that does not charge such a large amount in the thesis/dissertation stage. Perhaps they will choose to attend GW, but there will be no shock when they are told, after completing their course work, that the continuing enrollment fee has just gone up about 1,900 percent.

-Jennifer WulffsonM.A. student, art history