Between Monthly Meetings

By Ricky Garza (Georgetown 2013)

At DCSS, our District-wide Student Board convenes once a month with representatives from every major
university in the city to discuss issues affecting all of us and to approve policy positions that apply to
all Chapter organizations. Because there can often be a lot to talk about (with meetings lasting several
hours), DC Students Speak also appoints special ad-hoc committees to work on specific issues in greater
detail. Made up of interested members of the Student Board and leaders in Chapter organizations, ad
hoc committees meet between monthly meetings to get things done on behalf of DC Students Speak.
Smaller and more conducive to group work, ad hoc committees work to craft policy and achieve
solutions to problems that can be presented as recommendations at the larger meetings of the Student
Board.

Last week, the Ad Hoc Committee on Policy convened with representation from American, Georgetown,
and Howard Universities to work out the details of our District-wide policy stance on transportation
reform and to create a list of secondary issues all students can agree on. While the policy is yet to be
approved and will involve more detail, at the core of our transportation vision for the city is a WMATA
Metro Discount for university students.

Additionally, the committee will recommend DCSS formerly take stances against the new DC Noise
Ordinance, for Pell Grant support, same day voter registration rights, improved city safety measures,
student-friendly polling station locations, and a position for full DC democracy and federal voting rights
at our upcoming November meeting.

Also, the Ad Hoc Committee on Voter Registration convened last week to discuss initial steps and our
plan moving forward for our citywide Student Voter Registration Drive to take place next semester
ahead of the March 2012 primary elections. Scheduled to register student voters on every campus in the
city and to train over 200 students to serve as poll workers to increase student participation, our team
has much to be excited about as we look to the months ahead.

As DC Student Speak prepares our November meeting of Chapter Presidents and looks toward full
elections before the Fall semester’s end, we have much to look forward to. When classes resume in
early January of 2012, a new DC Students Speak leadership truly representative of the diversity on every
campus will begin a year of exciting work filled with advocacy and action on behalf of the growing new
student political constituency.

Whether it’s looking ahead a year from now or planning for next week, DCSS is working to keep the
conversation going.

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