Five questions about the ANC and AU for Tom Smith, ANC Commissioner 3D02.
What have you done during your time as an Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner (ANC) for Single Member District (SMD) 02 to advocate for the student residents of the north side of AU’s campus, who you represent?
In my four years as an ANC Commissioner, I have reached out to the whole student community through the AU Student Government President to discuss issues of concern to students and to seek opportunities to meet routinely with students. By working voluntarily with many individual students on several academic projects over the years, I also have sought to build an ongoing dialogue with the student community independent of the AU Student Government. I also have been supportive of student-led efforts to seat a student as the ANC Commissioner representing SMD 07 which consists almost exclusively of students living in the south dorms — even lobbying the D.C. Council for changes to existing local election law to make it easier for a student to secure the slot. Over the last four years, I also have encouraged AU administrators to consider building new student housing to reduce the need for triples in on-campus housing facilities. I have worked vigorously with the D.C. Department of Transportation and the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department to address public safety concerns near the campus, especially dangerous conditions for pedestrians in the Ward Circle area. I also worked aggressively with MPD to alert the community when AU women students were being targeted by an assailant(s), so that the community, as a whole, could join together in a neighborhood watch-like effort to ensure everybody’s safety. I also have worked closely with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the D.C. Department of the Environment, and the D.C. Department of Homeland Security to ensure that students’ safety is paramount as the clean up of World War I chemical munitions continues on the AU campus and in the community.
Do AU students and AU administrators make good neighbors?
Yes. This community is enriched by the presence of American University, especially its students. Many long-time residents of the area, like me, view AU as a cultural amenity. We make a choice to live in a community adjacent to a university-setting. Likewise, AU benefits greatly from its presence in this community and the community’s reputation for safety, the suburban-like setting, and good quality of life. Nevertheless, like in any co-dependent relationship, there may be disagreements. The challenge is keeping an open line of communication so that disagreements or problems, when they occur, are addressed with reason and with respect for one another — as has been the custom over the generations.
Do you feel that an AU student should sit on the ANC as a representative for SMD 07?
Yes. As a long-time D.C. community activist, I helped draw the ANC boundaries in the last two rounds of U.S. census-related redistricting in DC that created SMD 07. I advocated for the establishment of this SMD as a student-district at the D.C. City Council which has ultimate authority over D.C.’s redistricting of ANCs. I have always felt passionately that students should have the opportunity to participate and volunteer to serve as a member of the ANC, and I have worked vigorously — long before becoming an ANC Commissioner — to make this possible. The ANC, and D.C. government as a whole, is enriched and better informed by student participation and representation.
What issues related to the University’s presence in the neighborhood are you most concerned about?
AU administrators have indicated that the University is actively seeking to purchase any available commercial property in the community. The neighborhood has lost many neighborhood-serving retail businesses over the last ten years after AU has purchased the commercial property that housed these businesses. Losing neighborhood amenities in exchange for expansion of AU’s commercial footprint is a concern that extends beyond ANC 3D and is an issue that concerns other communities in the city where universities are located, including the Georgetown (Georgetown University) and Foggy Bottom (George Washington University) communities.
What will you do to represent the AU community in the future?
I will continue to reach out to AU Student Government leaders to seek more structured opportunities to meet with students and discuss ways that I can be helpful on issues related to the D.C. government and D.C. agencies. I also will ask The Eagle to consider making space available for a column periodically to communicate directly with students. I will continue to advocate with D.C. agencies for a comprehensive review of public safety concerns on city streets near the campus, especially in the Ward Circle area. As I have over the last four years, I will continue to reach out also to AU administrators and encourage open dialogue with the community on issues that fall within the jurisdiction of D.C. agencies. I will closely monitor the World War chemical munitions cleanup at AU and in the surrounding area and work to ensure that students are fully informed of any new information or potential dangers or hazards associated with the clean up on or near campus. And I will continue to make myself available to students to assist on any academic-related projects, as I have done routinely over the last four years.
“Five Questions with Tom Smith” is part of our “Five questions with...” series, where The Eagle will be asking various members of the AU community five questions about hot issues.
