Name: Nick Gumas
Hometown: New York City
Year: Junior
Major: Double majoring in Political Communication and Political Science
Campus Involvement: President of Allied in Pride, Senator in Student Association and Chair of the Student Life Committee, President-elect of the Student Association
You were just voted Student Association President. What was the campaign and election process like for you?
It was really exciting. I really enjoyed getting to meet with tons and tons of student org leaders and meeting students while dorm storming and palm carding. The process is always exhausting, but we had it a little bit easier than last year when their campaign was almost a month. It was a lot of work, but a lot of fun.
Why run for SA president?
I think a lot of people come to GW because they’re interested in public service or community service in some degree and I’m very interested in service in the sense of of advocating for policy change or social change. I work on advocacy with Allied and I joined the SA because I’ve always been interested in policy changes and, with respect to GW, change at the University level.
I ran for SA President because I believe that I have a good understanding of how the SA works and have a good view of what realistic expectations are in terms of policy goals. I was also interested in having the SA function as a connection to resources organization because, as much as students in the SA are eager to advocate for things, a lot of people come to GW to do their own thing. Most students, unfortunately, don’t realize what the SA does on a daily basis, so the least the SA can do is make sure that students that come here are connected to the resources we have available.
What are your hopes for the future of the SA and how do you want students to see the SA?
Continued PR and outreach to make sure students 1. Know who we are and 2. Know what we’re doing and how we can help them. Our priorities next year, at least on my end, are establishing a new counseling program, working to expand the accessibility of internship credit, possibly looking to create new learning communities for the freshman class to increase the retention rate, and centralizing the availability of SA resources and services through a streamlined website.
What do you think is going to be your biggest obstacle next year?
I think it’s always difficult to get students involved in the SA and sort of help them understand how what we’re doing is important and not just silly student government stuff. I think the work that Julia has done this year has been incredible, not only for the changes that it’s going to make in this campus, but also in showing students how powerful the SA can be in terms of improving our lives. So I’m hoping that that will make things easier, but I understand that it’s a challenge to get students to care about student government.
Besides the election, what has been your favorite only at GW moment?
Seeing the Congressmen and Senators come in for random events, the debate we had between Ann Coulter and Lawrence O’Donnell, those types of things are just great. These are things that happen at other universities, but the frequency in which they happen at GW is incredible. Every week there’s always an amazing “only at GW” moment.
Do you have any heroes that you look up to?
I like to say that I liked Hillary Clinton before she was cool.
What are you most excited about between now and next fall?
I’m excited for CI. I’m excited to meet the incoming freshman class, I think that will be fun.
Is there anything else that you want people to know about your campaign or you in general?
I would ask students to stay involved in the communities they are already a part of, but also to keep tabs on the SA. Make sure we’re doing what we said we would be doing. It’s important for students to stand up and let administrators and student leaders and advisers that they work with or whoever they can get their hands on know that there is an issue they care about.
What did it feel like when the Joint Elections Committee announced that you had won, especially seeing that you got over 70% of the vote?
I was incredibly excited, but also extremely grateful for all of the hard work that my team put into the campaign.