“What is this kid doing?” my friend said to me, pointing at a guy standing on top of the table in our lounge posting a flier on the last remaining empty space of our lounge’s cork board. He seemed a little awkward, but definitely committed, as he climbed off the table and started to encourage us to attend the event he was promoting.
“You deserve to know how your money is going to be spent,” he told us, grinning as he made his case for why we should attend his. Whatever group he was representing clearly benefited from his enthusiasm and support. His pitch was passionate, and his personality was magnetic.
My friend dismissed the flyer, but I was intrigued. Later that week I attended the event he was talking about: the annual Student Government Budget Town Hall. The event, which was standing room only, was hosted by the Senate Finance Chair and the guy I met in my lounge. His name was Will Mascaro, and he was the Speaker of the Undergraduate Senate.
Mascaro informed the audience that, just a year ago, this event had hosted zero students. This year, the room was physically packed. I was so impressed by the presentation, especially by Mascaro’s clear commitment to ensuring the Senate was transparent and accountable to the student body. I was hooked, and I kept coming back.
So let me make something clear: as a student, as someone who has attended nearly every Senate meeting from last semester to now, Will Mascaro and the senators he works with have revolutionized the Undergraduate Senate. Mascaro, along with passionate senators like Shannon McDermott and Kiersten Gillette-Pierce, have permanently altered the culture and role of the Undergraduate Senate.
And that brings me to Louis Ryan’s resignation letter. I don’t really care about Louis Ryan’s opinion. Why? Because in his resignation statement he admits, “I joined Senate to prove how ineffective an organization like this is.” To every student at American University, that statement should signal us to reading, and disregard everything this person is telling us.
Ryan asked the Class of 2016 to put their trust in him knowing full well he was joining the Senate not to represent them, but to undermine the entire body. He wasn’t interested in fighting for students, instead he was committed to embarrassing SG and denying students the representation they deserve right from the very start. It is now a force for change, a leader on important issues and the branch of Student Government that is fearlessly open and transparent to the student body. But don’t take my word for it, look at the facts.
Under Mascaro’s leadership, the Academic Access Fund was passed, the first program that actually gives students a portion of their Student Activities Fee back so that they can pay for class-required movie tickets and art supplies. Mascaro used his ability to make appointments not only to choose committed advocates, people that would truly fight for students, but also to appoint people from diverse backgrounds. He worked hard to bring in people that represented diverse perspectives, perspectives that were previously unheard.
Mascaro was the driving force behind the Senate’s decision to pass the bill that resulted in Student Government joining the Education Not Debt Coalition. If there ever was a crowning achievement to truly be proud of, Mascaro worked with former SG President Sophia Wirth to cobble together the money to fund the Empower AU sexual assault prevention education. When Mascaro took over, the ball was in his court. Without question, he delivered.
The Senate has progressed so far that it’s become easy to forget how bad things used to be. In the past, the Senate was a body that was ignored, dismissed and laughed at by the student body. It was a body whose members were so misogynistic that Women’s Initiative, another SG department, had to move offices because they couldn’t stand to share a space with the Senate. It was a place where some senators, including Louis Ryan, dismantled the SG Ethical and Judicial Standards to the point where the whole of SG was no longer a safe space.
Moreover, why are students expected to respect someone who so callously insults and dehumanizes the members of the Senate? He calls the senators that were appointed by Mascaro his “cronies,” and his “yes-men.” Ryan has reduced a group of people who have fought selflessly for the student body to no more than a bunch of evil sidekicks.
These “cronies” are people like Alexis Arnell, who passed legislation to significantly increase the standards of accountability across SG. They’re people like Christina Poehlitz, who’s been working with AU Zero Waste to address the situation with the trash receptacles. And they’re people like Gillette-Pierce, who single handedly wrote the historic bill that mandated all members of SG be trained in racial and cultural sensitivity. These “cronies,” are fighters, they’re passionate advocates and most importantly, they’re people who deserve respect.
Hundreds of more students know about and believe in the Senate, and that’s because of Mascaro. He and the vast majority of senators who have fought to change this organization for the better should be celebrated, not attacked by a disgruntled former Senator and a group of his friends who are upset that the Senate is no longer an old boy’s club.
Ryan’s statement reads like a joke resignation published in a bad Onion article, not some thought provoking insight that deserves our attention. The contrast is clear; Louis Ryan wasted his time and ours as he pretended to care about the student body. Will Mascaro, on the other hand, is a leader who’s given the student body back their greatest tool for change: the Senate.
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Gabby Eniclerico is the Treasurer of Queers & Allies and a sophomore in the School of Public Affairs.
