Name: Chris Voss
Hometown: Anoka, Minn.
Major: Economics and Biology
Year: Junior
Credentials: Student Association Dining Services chair, Colonial Inauguration cabinet member, founder of Students for a Better GW, community facilitator
Web site: www.stormloader.com/vote4voss

The way Chris Voss sees it, the Student Association Senate has a few problems – political divisiveness, lack of visibility and slow progress.

Luckily, he said, solutions are his specialty.

The first thing I’d like to do as executive vice president is cut the politics out, the junior said. Convinced that petty disputes arise from a lack of trust and communication among the senators, Voss said he would attempt to increase respect and cooperation by holding an SA retreat before the school year begins.

Enhancing student access to the Senate is another main priority for Voss. He said he would push for legislation requiring senators to hold regular office hours in the main buildings of their respective schools.

The Senate needs to be visible, and its going to take someone outside of the SA to make it happen, he said. If they’re in the SA already, they haven’t done it.

The SA should take a more active role in soliciting student input, Voss said. If elected EVP, he said he will urge the Senate to re-format its committee system to include hearings, where GW students will be invited to share their experiences with University services. Armed with this information, the SA should have better luck persuading GW administrators when change is necessary, Voss said.

The job of the SA is to fill in these gaps between what the University wants to be for students and what it really is, the former Colonial Cabinet member said. Voss prides himself on the close ties with students and administrators that he said made his past endeavors successful.

As chair of the SA Dining Services Commission last year, Voss helped end the meal zone system that many underclassmen found restrictive. He also orchestrated late-night breakfast service at J Street during reading and finals weeks beginning last year and organized a meal plan points donation program that raised $15,000 for Martha’s Kitchen in two weeks.

Voss, who is a community facilitator this year in the Aston, also founded Students for a Better GW, a group that comprises student leaders and top-level administrators who collaborate to improve the University’s responsiveness to students.

I hope I can help to build a unified SA that is taken seriously by administrators, Voss said. But most importantly, one that students are proud of.