SBA Elections Results and Recap
After a contentious election cycle, Amanda Hichez, currently serving as Vice President of Finance (2L), emerged victorious in the race for SBA President, surpassing her opponents Jo Slaughter, Vice President of Student Affairs (2L), and Nigel Walton, former Executive Vice President (2L). Vice Pres. Hichez secured 57.6% of the votes, while Vice Pres. Slaughter and Walton earned 27.3% and 13.2%, respectively. In the race for Executive Vice President, Sen. Quinn Biever (2L-Brandeis) triumphed over Sen. Omer Turkomer (2L-Jackson), Chair of the Senate Finance Committee, with 59.8% of the vote.
Current SBA President Cherissa Lindsay (3L) addressed the Senate before the presentation of the Election Commission Report. Tuesday’s meeting came just days after Walton resigned from his position as Executive Vice President, citing personal family matters and attacks on his character. President Lindsay thanked Walton for “answering the call” following an even more contentious election cycle last year, which saw multiple last-minute resignations. In turn, Walton thanked President Lindsay and said he was “happy to answer the call.” Lindsay also expressed her disappointment in the GW Law community for “bullying and character attacks” throughout this past election. She concluded her remarks by congratulating Vice Pres. Hichez and Sen. Biever for their campaign wins.
President Linday’s remarks about bullying and attacks were in response to the allegations made of Walton’s political maneuvering during the elections. The 1L, 2L, and 3L GroupMe chats all saw heated discussion where Walton was accused of usurping three 2L womens’ (Christine Magume, Lara Montoya Franco, and Minnie Nelson) work to get the Justice, Rights, & Policy Journal (JRPJ) up and running. Supporters of JRPJ accused Walton of taking credit for the journal to bolster his presidential bid, while Walton supporters felt it was a miscommunication that was unnecessary for public debate.
Vice Pres. Hichez was enthusiastically applauded by the Senate for her win when presenting her usual finance updates. She thanked everyone and explained how “excited and ready [she and Quinn were] to get to work.”
After the presentation of the Election Commission Report, the elections were smoothly certified. Walton remarked at the end of the meeting that he always “stand[s] 10 toes down on everything [he] says” and that “emails harassing [him] and emails that are mischaracterizations of a racial undertone” were unacceptable. This was Walton’s last meeting as Executive Vice President, as Sen. Darrell Black (3LE-Jay) will take over for the remainder of the year. Black was confirmed as the new Executive Vice President by the Senate at Tuesday’s meeting.
Barristers Ball Concerns
After ongoing issues and confusion with the school’s administration, Barristers’ Ball has been confirmed for Friday, March 14th, at the Omni Shoreham Hotel. Sen. Victoria Luckenbaugh (4LE-Jay) raised concerns about the late announcement of Barristers’ and the expensive ticket prices, claiming that announcing it this late makes it harder for students to budget and account for the event.
The late announcement of Barrister’s Ball had largely to do with the problems with the venue price. The Omni Hotel was initially too out of the budget without the promised $100,000 credit. So an alternate date of April 5th was floated while searching for a new venue. However, the Omni Hotel after working with the school’s administration agreed to the lower price but for the March 14th date. Due to the issue with the credit, SBA could not confirm the Barrister’s Ball location and announce it to the students sooner.
Ultimately, the cost for Barristers’ will total about $192,000, with about $92,000 coming from the SBA budget. President Lindsay assured the Senate that there was plenty of funding left to account for Barristers’ this year. Cited concerns come from past years’ deficits in the SBA budget, which have led the SBA to scramble and fundraise at the last minute for the event.
Students can buy non-alcoholic and alcoholic tickets for themselves and non-law students alike. Need-based tickets are available by filling out a form by February 28th. Sober monitor tickets are also available at a reduced amount with the possibility of an additional reduction.
Finances: FIFA Act, Student Organization Fundraising Act, & More Ad Hoc Bills
Much was accomplished during this week’s SBA meeting. The Flights for International Families Act (FIFA Act) was introduced by Sen. Marcella Rubini (2L-Cardozo) to help graduating international students specifically. The Act would provide ten international students with funds to help pay for their families to visit during graduation. The ten students receiving this funding will be picked through a lottery system, so international students should look out for information on the Act.
All Ad Hoc bills were approved, which ranged from funding for the Student Intellectual Property Law Association to students seeking funding for the GW Law Softball Club. While there was some debate about approving the GW Law Softball funds, the bill’s supporters won by a close vote. The win came after Sen. Turkomer, Chair of the Senate Finance Committee, explained that the Ad Hoc Fund has always been utilized to promote both law-related and non-law-related activities.
Finally, after much discussion, the Student Organization Fundraising Act was tabled for the next SBA meeting. The Finance Committee introduced this Act to remove two provisions in the bylaws. One provision currently requires student organizations to run one fundraiser in order to be eligible for SBA funding in the following academic year, while the other is the requirement to reduce a student organization’s budget allocation based on their fundraising efforts. While almost everyone was on board with removing the second requirement, some Senators were hesitant to remove the requirement for student organizations to fundraise in order to get SBA funding.
Sen. Thaddeus Canuel (1LE-Jay) was one of the primary vocal opponents of removing the requirement for student organizations to fundraise. Sen. Rubini agreed, explaining that this is one of the only requirements for student organizations and it was a way to bring more student engagement to the organizations. Sen. Turkomer opposed keeping the fundraising requirement, explaining that current student organization leaders should not be penalized for previous organization leadership failures. This topic was tabled for the next meeting to give time to rework the Act during the next Finance Committee meeting.
