photo Credit: www.gwrha.com

Updated March 27, 2014 at 4:57 p.m.

The GW Residence Hall elected its E-Board for the 2014-2015 year during a general body meeting held on Monday, March 24th.

The race for president was uncontested, with Junior Ari Massefski running for the position unopposed.

Massefski presented a platform based on the tenants of housing advocacy, cost control, and leadership development. Ideas included holding the university accountable to a 7 year renovation cycle, exploring financial hardship waivers to the on-campus housing requirement for juniors, and providing opportunities for hall councils to collaborate with other student organizations on programming.

Previously, Massefski served on RHA in 2012-2013 as Executive Director for FSK Hall and as chair of the Facilities committee, where he was instrumental in developing the “FixItComeFixIt” twitter account. Massesfki also has two years of experience in the Student Association, where he currently serves as Chief of Staff to President Julia Susuni.

For executive vice president, Mike Massaroli beat out fellow sophomore Chris Evans for the position in a close race. In his presentation, Massaroli discussed the importance of working closely with committee leaders and providing opportunities to inspire participation from the RHA general body. He also recommended RHA work towards highlighting the positives of each building on campus, referencing that certain buildings have developed worse reputations than others.

In addition to serving as the current chair of the RHA facilities committee, Massaroli is also the Risk Manager for Beta Theta Pi and previously served on the Student Association’s Freshman advisory committee.

In a joint statement after the elections, Massefski and Massaroli stated that they hope to improve RHA’s visibility on campus by “engaging in meaningful advocacy for the members of the residential community at GW.”

Noting that many students only recognize RHA as “an organization which gives them free cupcakes or pizza”, they said “doing more substantive work as an organization will lead to greater knowledge in the community about what we have the potential to do. In the upcoming year, the two plan to “learn with the outgoing RHA executive board and work with the incoming board to achieve our goals” as well as “solicit feedback from the on-campus student body to ensure their voice is being heard”.

Other students elected to the executive board during the two hour, closed meeting included Kellie French as director of Hall Development, Ali Belinkie as Programming Director, Zac Ruckert as Communications Director, Laura Hellwig as Finance Chair, and Christopher Walker as National Communications Coordinator.

Updated to reflect the proper titles of Ali Belinkie and Zac Ruckert.