Women’s program displays alumni art
Sculptures, paintings and photographs by former women’s leadership students will be on display at Eckles Library until Nov. 2 at the Mount Vernon Campus.

The artwork on display was created by students in the International Arts and Culture cohort of the Elizabeth J. Somer’s Women’s leadership program, which is open to freshmen and housed at Mount Vernon.

“This is the fifth year of the program,” said Rachelle Heller, associate dean for academic affairs at Mount Vernon. “There are still women on campus who were in this program, so it is their work that is being featured, and it is the work they did when they were in this program.”

Women in the program produce artwork throughout the year in special classes associated with the Elizabeth J. Somer’s program. The exhibit will not include art from this year’s International Arts and Culture students, but will be displayed throughout the year.

“We try to feature the students’ work. This gives us an opportunity to provide a showcase for the students who are in this program and provide an interesting exhibit for visitors to this library,” Heller said.

-Andrea Nurko

First President’s Council meeting attracts few leaders
Only 40 out of 351 invited student leaders attended the first President’s Council meeting Wednesday night at the Dorothy Betts Marvin Theatre. The Presidential Council, created by the Student Association this year as a forum for student group leaders to discuss issues and make announcements, will meet monthly.

Kris Hart, SA President, attributed the small turnout to outside events including the World Series and midterm exams.

Hart addressed topics including the alternative academic calendar proposal, the possibility of University Police purchasing bomb-sniffing dogs and putting Starbucks in the Gelman Library.

Hart said the University plans to install a Starbucks in the library once it finds water and electricity outlets in the proposed space. Officials have expressed a strong interest in the venue in the past.

Hart opened the meeting by emphasizing the importance of the forum, noting that it will help him address the needs of students and organizations when he meets with the administration.

“If we don’t come together about how we feel about the administration’s policies then we are selling ourselves out,” Hart told attendees.

One topic of concern, student identity theft, stirred up reactions from Hart and fellow student leaders.

“GW students are asked to give out their social security number three times in one day” Hart said. “The University is really dragging their feet in fixing this huge security issue.”

Hart also warned student leaders about protecting their GWorld account number, like a credit card number, which gets printed on receipts where GWorld is used.

” As long as someone knows the last four digits of your GWorld, they can order food on your account without anyone noticing – until it’s too late,” Hart said.

At the end of the 40-minute forum, student leaders asked questions and brought up concerns such as high catering costs and the lack of space to host events.

“The administration discourages this type of open forum,” Hart said. Hart said he hopes more students will come out to the monthly meetings in the future to “hear their voices and opinions, which can have an impact on policy.”

– Jennifer Nedeau