With the recent campus elections finally over, I’d like to introduce myself. My name is Cathy Resler. I am a newly elected Columbian School undergraduate Student Association senator, and I would like to inform the public of some of my priorities for the coming year.

My foremost priority is ensuring that part-time faculty in all departments will be allowed to attend department meetings. The majority of introductory classes are taught by part-time faculty. These classes are the building blocks of our education and careers. Part-time faculty are often unable to represent themselves, therefore they are unable to represent us.

Additionally, as a student in the Columbian School, I know the difficulty of advising – I’m an undeclared science major with a humanities advisor who happens to be on sabbatical this year.

I’m trying to put the power back into the hands of students by starting the Student Adviser Network – a source of advise from one student to another. There will be a student-run Web page where all majors are listed. Students will be able to click on their major and find a list of volunteer student advisers. Each student on the list will have a few words of advice, his or her four-year plan and their e-mail address. If you are interested in helping me with the Web page or would like to be a student adviser, please let me know.

I am a sophomore this year and while many things have changed since last year, the one thing that remains consistent is that students don’t like the SA. Let me be honest with you, I don’t like the SA – that’s why I got involved.

I’ve been around and worked with our different elected officials and while some of them have made tremendous contributions to GW, we often have student leaders who don’t adequately represent us. This is when displeasure gives way to letters to the editor and people begin to complain. I’ve been elected to represent and help all of you, so I’m asking for your help.

The SA is a student government. That’s it. Period.

I know I’m here to allocate funds to student groups. There are issues on campus that concern me and I’d like to know what your concerns are (that’s right, I’m reaching out. Scary, isn’t it?).

Please let me know what you want – my e-mail address is: [email protected]. Please inform me, help me, even berate me, anything, but by all means let me know what you think. I encourage all of you to get in touch with your representatives; you’ve elected these people, so hold them responsible. They are in charge of some of your tuition dollars, so if you don’t like what they are doing, instead of sitting around complaining, go tell them what you want.

Remember, YOU chose them. YOU are responsible for the people YOU voted into office. These are the people you elected, if you don’t like what they are doing, do something about it.

-The writer is a CSAS undergraduate senator