There are 85,000 college students in the District of Columbia, yet college students have rarely has any voice in the District's functioning. College students reside the vast majority of the year in D.C, and it is in the fundamental interest of college students to have a powerful voice. From everything to campus plans to noise ordinances, it has been made clear that there are in fact tangible negative consequences of students not speaking up.
We believe our interests go unattended to in city government because we are underrepresented. Despite comprising 15% of the District of Columbia's population, we hold only two of the 276 citywide Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) seats. With ANCs being the level of government that most directly affects students, this is a serious problem.
We believe that as a grassroots organization with chapters citywide, this underrepsentation can soon be overcome. At the moment, we have representation from American University, Catholic University of America, Georgetown University, George Washington University, Howard University, Trinity-Washington University, and The University of the District of Columbia.
It is only through working together that students can work to positively transform the District of Columbia.
