Student Association President Jason Lifton told The Hatchet he considers updating the SA’s Marvin Center office one of his biggest accomplishments this year.

Given the SA executive board’s lack of visible progress on major student issues this semester, it’s not surprising that Lifton points to such a minor change as a notable accomplishment for his administration.

The SA exists for one purpose and one purpose only: to advocate on the behalf of GW students.

Members of the executive board are tasked with acting as liaisons between University officials and the student body. Every year, candidates vying for the position of SA president and vice president draw up platforms that incorporate how they want to improve student life on campus.

Lifton and Executive Vice President Rob Maxim addressed salient campus issues during their campaigns last year. Both vocalized a desire to see improvements in dining and called for changes to the alcohol amnesty policy, noting that at the time, both of these aspects of student life were mired in red tape. We do not know if Lifton and Maxim are in the process of fulfilling these campaign promises, but underclassmen and upperclassmen have not seen the changes on these issues and deserve to know what progress Lifton and Maxim are making. There is a lack of communication about whether or not the SA’s executive board is close to achieving its goals, as a simple claim of “we are working on it” does not suffice.

This could stem from the fact that members of the executive branch consistently fail to publicly outline specific, concrete goals early on. The system of keeping goals and specific solutions private has marred the success of SA candidates and officials. And while it is a shrewd political move, it is an injustice to the GW community. It would be a shame to see the SA – which is designed to advocate for the student body – simply become another arm of the University administration, and not do enough to share what it is working on with the students.

Ultimately, an SA administration’s effectiveness should not solely be measured by the absence of corruption or blatant mismanagement, like we’ve seen with previous administrations. Students deserve updates and results.

In response to a pressing issue on campus this semester, Lifton stated he wants to set up a student group to help prioritize what needs to be fixed in Gelman Library, but this is an unnecessary step that increases the time between when students voice a problem, and when the University fixes it. The SA does not need to identify the problems with our library – students have already done that. Instead, the SA needs to identify solutions and get GW administrators to act on them.

The SA did form an agreement with Kaplan Testing to provide a 10 percent discount on graduate school practice exam prep services for Colonials, and this is a welcome and laudable program for students and alumni. But it is not part of the original promises on which Lifton and Maxim campaigned.

The SA’s “Issues” page on its website is blank except for a message that says, “Coming Soon.” We find this much too representative of the way the SA executive branch has carried out its goals so far this year. The efforts of the SA should not be privy to members of the SA only. Lifton and Maxim say changes are coming soon, but it is already the end of the fall semester, and students are not aware of what they are doing to make improvements. They don’t even know if they can expect improvements. Next semester, we hope to see visible progress and substantial changes to the communication and the issues that members of the executive branch originally vowed to improve.

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