Gelman Library Wasn't a [Major] Campaign Issue

I told myself that I was going to keep quite on all SA related issues for the rest of my time at GW. But, when my friend Ted Costigan asked me to appear on his radio show last night to comment on President-elect Jason Lifton's new promise to make the Gelman Library renovation his top priority, I broke the promise to myself. Wright10 criticized Lifton for this in his blog post, and I too question Lifton's decision to make the library his main initiative.

Having spent the entire month of February researching, brainstorming campaign issues, and prepping Lifton's opponent for the presidential debates, I know that the Gelman Library rennovation was never a major campaign issue. An alcohol amnesty policy was, campus safety was, reducing the rep tape at GW was, but the library wasn't. For that reason alone, I question why it would be his main initiative to this point.

Secondly, the details of how he plans to improve the library are pretty vague. The Hatchet article does mention the following:

Lifton said he plans to work with Ryan Last, founder of the Facebook fan page
"Get Gelman Going," which has gathered 1,163 fans, and the WRLC to explore the
possibility of relocating more books to an off-campus site to make room for more
study space.

However, the article also states that they already ship 20,000 books per year to the off site location. That's nothing new though, and it's not really an improvement that seems worth while.

Lastly, as the article also points out, the main issue with the library rennovation is the lack of funding for the project. It states that only $150,000 of the $5 million needed for the project had been raised in September. The issue is funding. In my opinion, it is not the job of the Student Association President to fundraise.