Bill Clinton lost his race to become Georgetown’s student body president in 1967, but we hear things turned out okay for him! Student government at Georgetown has a long and storied history. We are working to compile a more complete history of GUSA, and if you would like to contribute your knowledge, please email us at [email protected]. To submit a research request to the GUSA historian, use this form.

1984-1989

The most modern incarnation of student government at Georgetown University, GUSA (the Georgetown University Student Association), began in the early days of 1984 when Student Government President Phillip “Flip” Casper recognized the need for a student government with new purposes, broadened services, and a fresh image after several years under an ineffective constitution that was originally ratified only six years earlier. One of the main authors of the new constitution, John Farley, told The Hoya that a major objective was to “de-emphasize the political aspects of the body and emphasize more the service aspect of it.” Shortly thereafter, the new constitution was ratified by the Student Government. The focus of the constitution which fostered a five-hour debate prior to ratification were the enhanced duties and responsibilities that would be asked of senators. Added into this discussion was debate over the reinstitution of the Yard, which was a previous student government model that relied on the meeting of student leaders from various groups on campus such as GUASFCU and the Corp to decide on issues important to students. This was eventually determined to be too weak for what the student body was seeking. It was, however, added as an advisory body to the more formal Student Association. One amendment to the constitution which failed to garner enough support was a “sunshine amendment” requiring SG-controlled Lecture Fund and SAC (Student Activities Commission) meetings to be open to all students. These groups were undoubtedly the most powerful arms of GUSA and controlled the $250,000 budget that the university allotted the Student Government. It was a controversy which would come back to plague Georgetown’s student government well into the future. In the first elections for what would later become known as GUSA, eight tickets vied for Student Body President and Vice President. After a tight election, Paul Evert and Marguerite Fletcher were elected to serve the following academic year. The constitution was also ratified by the student body by a strong margin (this process for final ratification was laid out in the text of the constitution). Evert’s first job as president was to determine the organizations which would be represented in the new advisory body, the Yard. The president chose to avoid major controversy and grant membership to all major clubs on campus. During his term, Evert also worked to put students on newly created positions on GUSA committees such as the Georgetown Programming Board and the Long Range Planning Committee. He also helped create two new subcommittees – the Minority Affairs Commission and the Student-Alumni Affairs Committee. He sought to utilize students who had expressed interest in involvement with GUSA but were turned down because of limited positions. He also ensured student representation in appointing new Co-Directors of Adjudication and dropped GUSA’s previous position on demanding representation on the University’s Board of Directors in order to gain university recognition of GUSA as the “primary voice of the students.” Overall, the Evert and Fletcher were seen positively during the academic year. They opened up GUSA by sending out a monthly newsletter and opening up their meetings to the public. They also ran the Internship Bureau and Course Critique effectively, two institutions under the purview of GUSA at the time. They also worked to make the Student Life Committee more effective. However, their term was not without controversy. In January of 1985, Evert decided to fire all nine members of the GUSA Election Commission over their “petty politicking and incompetence,” as Evert described it. His main issue was their handling of a November special election to fill an Assemblyman’s seat. While it was generally agreed that changes needed to be made in the Commission, most viewed Evert’s all-out firing as extreme and a possible power grab for a president who would likely be seeking reelection in a few months. (Under the constitution, the president could not only fire the commission but appoint members to its vacant positions.) This would factor in as a significant issue in the upcoming election for Evert and Fletcher’s challengers. In the 1985 election, for the 1985-1986 academic year, Paul Evert and Marguerite Fletcher captured only 12.1% of the votes cast coming in a distant third. The winners were Mark Ouweleen and Dennis Dee who won with 35.6%. Ouweleen’s term was partly defined by a nationwide debate on the time concerning affirmative action and quotas. Ouweleen backed a GUSA Assembly resolution that urged the university to amend their 5-year plan and eliminate language calling for minority candidate preference in faculty hiring. At the same time, Ouweleen held out on appointing an Election Commission (one of the president’s constitutional obligations) because he recognized the conflict of interest it had presented with his predecessor. He also supported amendments to allow all students to serve on the Commission and to reduce the number of GUSA representatives on SAC. To the chagrin of many, though, he did not pursue university recognition of GUSA believing the organization to not be ready for it and failed to get the necessary energy behind the newly-formed Yard to make it an effective organization. He also failed on one of his most public campaign promises to increase GUTS bus transportation during vacation time. On the positive side, Ouweleen fought hard to save the Center Cafe by increasing student representation on the committee overseeing its operation. He also helped pass a resolution asking Morocco to free a local political captive who was being prevented from attending Georgetown because of his country’s policies on dissenters. As Ouweleen and Dee wound up their term, the election to replace them produced a winning ticket in Paul Caccamo, a junior, and Greg Kaler Smith, a sophomore. It was the greatest landslide in GUSA elections at the time with 62% of the vote going to the Caccamo/Smith ticket. Caccamo had finished second to Ouweleen the year before and was able to rely on name recognition. Early on, Caccamo strove for great class unity by creating sophomore and junior class committees in addition to the already-existing senior class committee. (Later that year, a freshman class committee was created, as well.) He also helped develop the Student District Outreach to serve as a link between the volunteer force of Georgetown students and GUSA. He also organized a successful “Hands Across Georgetown” campaign to promote school unity and raise over $1,000 for a D.C. charity at the annual Spring Fest. During this time, too, the D.C. City Council was following suit with other states and municipalities in considering a raise of the drinking age from 18 to 21. GUSA quickly passed a resolution condemning such a law. Furthermore, they organized an “emergency voter registration drive” in order to dissuade lawmakers from backing the age increase. Ultimately, these efforts proved futile. During the 1986-1987 year, GUSA also made Caccamo the chair of the Spirit Committee where he spearheaded several efforts including one to have Georgetown students help renovate a local community park. They also created the GUSA Bicentennial Celebration Committee to cooperate with the official university committee as the bicentennial of the university neared. In addition, GUSA sponsored the Great American Smokeout which encouraged participants to give up cigarettes for 24 hours. During this time, changes were being considered for SAC. Eventually GUSA Vice President Greg Smith reached an agreement with then-Dean of Student Affairs John DeGoia that clubs which dealt with performing arts, community service, and the media would be budgeted by newly formed boards consisting of faculty, students, and administration. At the same time, the senior class committee of the previous year fell under intense scrutiny for a $21,000 budget deficit. After review by Caccamo and the rest of GUSA, it was determined that much of the deficit was due to “extremely careless accounting.” However, $4,500 was never recovered. While some criticized Caccamo’s agenda of “beers and balloons” (focusing on spirit events and the drinking age) the validation for his administration came in the next election as GUSA Vice President Greg Smith was elected president with running mate John Rote, capturing nearly double the votes of the second place candidates. Smith’s term was off to a rocky start after the GUSA Assembly began rejecting some of his appointments to various committees, accusing the new president of favoritism in appointing less-than-qualified candidates. The most public example of this was when Smith appointed his vice president John Rote for the Corp Board, a board on which Smith already served. The appointment was roundly rejected by a vote of 12-1. By quickly holding forums on the university’s new and strict alcohol policies, Smith was able to pivot the discussion from appointments and made GUSA look as if it finally had some teeth. In particular, they targeted Dean DeGioia who was seen by students as the main architect behind the new policies. He soon conceded that adjustments needed to be made and that student input was not adequately taken into consideration. Afterwards, Smith found it easier to win support from the Student Assembly for his appointments. He also started riding high when the university decided to officially recognize GUSA as the voice of the student body. Soon, though, GUSA was hit by internal conflicts after a high-profile student member of the Drug and Alcohol Task Force resigned after the committee’s minutes were published in the Hoya, breaching the confidentiality under which the administration and students had agreed to meet. Also, GUSA Assembly meetings began to be bogged down from the politicking of various senators, clearly angling for a more prominent office. It led to a delay on a comprehensive student response to the university’s widely-disliked alcohol policies. Eventually, GUSA passed a resolution asking that any university committee on student life include at least 4 student representatives, including the Alcohol Task Force. It was during Smith’s term, also, that GUSA began taking a more active role in representing the students’ voice when a specific safety issue was being handled unjustly by the university’s administrative institutions. For example, when Sgt. Charles Christian, Protective Services’ chief investigator, claimed that many of the rape allegations being made around campus were exaggerated, GUSA pushed for DeGioia and others to reprimand the official for his “dismissive attitude.” Also, after the punishment for several students’ came out who had tipped over a car on 37th and O streets, GUSA called it “too severe” and gave the students a “fair hearing” which they did not receive from the university. There was also some activity with the Stewards, a secret society of Georgetown, when GUSA passed a resolution condemning the organization and asking any members of the society serving in GUSA to vote against the resolution or abstain from voting. After a high-profile member of GUSA, Mark Johnson, abstained from voting, he was ostracized and eventually opted to resign. The drawn-out process was criticized by Smith who said it was distracting from real issues such as, in his opinion, reforming the SAC-GUSA relationship so that SAC would have more autonomy in dealing with GUSA’s budget. In the 1988 GUSA executive election, though, it was exactly the same member who was forced to resign from GUSA because of his involvement with the Stewards that won the election with running mate Justin Falvey. Smith handed off the presidency with a tumultuous term, defined by a hostile relationship with the GUSA Assembly, but the distinguished accomplishment of achieving university recognition of GUSA. (And gaining the commitment of Dean DeGioia to address the GUSA Assembly twice each semester from then on.) The 1988-1989 academic year would bring a GUSA that did not shy away from larger political issues. Johnson chose to begin his term with an examination of recent tuition increases which had hit university students hard. The Tuition Investigation Committee was a direct offshoot of Johnson’s campaign promise to address the issue. Furthermore, he opted to not attend the Bicentennial Convocation and address the student body because President Ronald Reagan was being awarded an honorary degree. Johnson also wielded his veto power when the GUSA Assembly approved a change in election procedures to require signatures for placement on the ballot. Johnson expressed his worry that someone might be excluded from the ballot because of sex, race, religion, socio-economic status or some other factor in violation of the constitution’s full participation clause. When the issue came of appointing students to the Alcohol Task Force, Johnson refused to make any appointments to the committee until Dean DeGioia agreed to conform to the guidelines on the committee set out in a GUSA resolution. This arguably liberal tilt of GUSA did not stop at the executive’s door, however. The GUSA Committee on Integration released a report criticizing the integration of campus and produced a video to fight the perceived segregation of students of different races. The Assembly also passed a resolution supporting the Women’s Caucus who were fighting against Playboy Magazine’s intention to interview female Georgetown students in an article entitled “Women of the Big East.” Most significantly, though, was when President Rev. Timothy Healy decided to retire and a presidential search committee was formed. GUSA was not consulted by the university who handpicked the student representative to serve on the committee for a replacement. This would prove to be an ongoing controversy throughout the search process. Several constitutional amendments were also toyed with this year. GUSA decided to retain the right to vote in elections for seniors and changed the structure of the Yard to make it a more viable body. It hadn’t had a formal meeting for a couple of years and would meet soon after the constitutional amendment was approved. The election for the 1989-1990 year for GUSA President and Vice President brought Fitz Haney and Jason Wolf to office. They continued the fight started by Johnson to ensure student representation in the search process for a university president through various forums and letters to administration officials.