Serving the GW Community since 1904

The GW Hatchet

AN INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER SERVING THE GW COMMUNITY SINCE 1904

The GW Hatchet

Serving the GW Community since 1904

The GW Hatchet

NEWSLETTER
Sign up for our twice-weekly newsletter!

Officials name senior vice president, chief of staff
By Fiona Riley, Assistant News Editor • March 26, 2024

SA Senate Notes/ Greek Briefs

Greek Brief

The Kappa Sigma fraternity raised more than $1,300 for the Virginia Special Olympics organization by pulling a Boeing 727 Saturday at Dulles International Airport.

Kappa Sigma, the only college student group at the Plane Pull, finished 19 out of 60 teams. Most other teams were local businesses, all raising money for the Special Olympics.

“It was a great thing. We absolutely had a blast,” said Geoffrey DeLizzio, a member of the fraternity’s 20-man pulling team. “It will definitely become an annual event.”

Each team pulled the 727 with a thick rope attached to the plane’s front landing gear. Each team had to pull the plane at least 12 feet in the fastest time.

“It was like a tug-of-war with an airplane, it was difficult,” DeLizzio said. “Once you got going, it went pretty well. But to get started we were using everything we had.”

The team weighed in at more than 3,000 pounds total. A Boeing 727 weighs 170,000 pounds, and is more than 130 feet long.

Dulles International Airport hosted the first Plane Pull in the world in 1992 to benefit the Special Olympics. Since then, the pulls have raised $340,000. Each year about 13,000 athletes participate in the Virginia Special Olympics.

-Amanda Mantone

SA Senate Notes

Metropolitan Police Chief Charles Ramsey explained security measures for the upcoming International Monetary Fund protests to the Student Association Senate Tuesday night. Law School student group allocations then highlighted the five-hour meeting.

The GW Law School Student Bar Association and members of various other law school organizations voiced their concerns during the Senate’s public comment session. Law school student leaders said the Senate Finance Committee promised funding on par with last year’s allocation and reneged last Tuesday, earmarking the funds instead for students in the Medical Student Association.

Law school senators threatened secession from the SA if a solution could not be reached. Secession would require approval from the University Board of Trustees, Executive Vice President Eric Daleo said.

Ramsey addressed student questions about upcoming protests near GW’s campus as part of Daleo’s plan to bring more outside speakers to senate meetings.

“People will have a chance to express their First Amendment rights, the meetings go on and everybody wins,” Ramsey said. MPD is shutting down a perimeter surrounding the World Bank that overlaps campus boundaries.

With 9,000 delegates and thousands of protesters expected near campus this Friday, Saturday and Sunday, Ramsey told senators and students MPD would “do the best (they) can.”

The SA also passed a finance reform bylaw providing what Sen. Don Jacobson (G-CCAS) called “a system of checks and balances,” following the recent $50,000 SA budget shortfall.

The “SA Financial Reform Act of 2002” eliminates special and conference financial requests and requires the Senate Finance Committee to approve all event co-sponsorships, a former duty of the vice president of financial affairs.

The senate confirmed SA President Phillip Robinson’s appointees for vice presidents of judicial and legislative affairs, Justin Oshana, financial affairs, Vishnu Murthy and undergraduate policy, Dani Greenspan.

Sens. Karen Gagnon (U-SPHHS) and Don Jacobson (G-CCAS) criticized Robinson’s selection of Christy Odom for vice president of public affairs because of low attendance at Monday’s town hall meeting in
Thurston Hall, for which Odom was in charge of publicity. After debating in executive session for more than 15 minutes, Daleo announced that Odom’s nomination would be postponed until the next meeting, Oct. 8.

-T. Neil Sroka

More to Discover
Donate to The GW Hatchet