Eight D.C. college students ran for local offices across the city in 2012 in hopes of representing their neighborhoods on the Advisory Neighborhood Commission.
These students include:
● Peter Prindiville and Craig Cassey of Georgetown University,
● Patrick Kennedy, Jackson Carnes and Peter Sacco from George Washington University,
● SPA senior Joe Wisniewski, Rory Slatko and Kathryn Tinker from AU.
The 37 ANCs of D.C. advise the local government to act on issues that affect their neighborhoods such as traffic, liquor licenses and economic development, according to the D.C. City Council website.
“I started in Student Government…wanting to represent their peers, make change, be part of the dialogue,” Slatko said in an email. “It struck me that all of those reasons also applied…to the ANC and what it lacked in terms of the student perspective.”
Slatko, a junior in the School of Public Affairs, currently represents the majority of AU’s campus as ANC commissioner of Ward 3D07.
Many districts, city councils, school boards and advisory boards across the nation have student-heavy populations, but not much student representation, according to Wisniewski.
Wisniewski, who currently represents the Greenbriar, Avalon and Berkshire apartments for ANC’s Ward 3D10, aims to fix this problem.
“Being able to engage with your constituents whom you live amongst…is a great experience,” Wisniewski said. “I wanted to get other students involved on the local level.”
Wisniewski decided to run for local office because he wanted to have an impact on his community. Since being elected, he has been involved in projects such as mediating neighbor-University relations and installing bike lanes on New Mexico Avenue.
Two AU students ran for seats on the ANC in 2010, including SPA senior Deon Jones, who won the seat that at the time encompassed all of Main Campus. Elections for these seats are held every two years.
Three years later, more students are running for local offices in D.C. and beyond, according to Wisniewski. He is currently working on campaigns for city council in College Park, Md., Newark, N.J. and Idaho.
“We saw this problem [lack of student representation] here in D.C., but we noticed that it was kind of going on in every other college town across America,” Wisniewski said.
As Wisniewski assists with campaigns in other states, he also hopes to fill other seats across D.C. Wisniewski has been trying to reach out to students in the Catholic University area, where a seat has been vacant for years.
“We really think [students] can add a new energy to local politics,” Wisniewski said.
