I am writing in response to the April 26 article “Drill tests UW’s emergency response.” In the article, Director of UW Emergency Management Steve Charvat claims “Requests for an official ASUW or GPSS representative have never been filled, even though we extend an invitation each year to have an official student representative on our committee.” As vice rresident of the Graduate and Professional Student Senate, it is my job to oversee graduate and professional student representation on University committees. I was greatly disappointed to read what I feel is an unsubstantiated claim by Steve Charvat: that he has reached out to GPSS to have student representation. I cannot speak for prior GPSS vice presidents, but this academic year, I have never received a letter, e-mail, phone call or any other form of communication that could be considered an invitation to have a student representative fill the advisory committee he is speaking about. With the recent tragedy at Virginia Tech and the tragic event in Gould Hall, GPSS has received a significant amount of concern from students around issues of campus safety. Many of these students, I feel, would consider filling a committee seat to ensure the voices of students are heard.

I am disappointed that Mr. Charvat, in my opinion, did not accurately represent his efforts to include a student voice to The Daily, and I have left him a voicemail expressing my concern. However, I am glad that the lack of student representation has been brought to light, and with proper information from Mr. Charvat, I know GPSS will move swiftly to fill the committee slot. I could not agree more with Mr. Charvat’s statement that a student perspective would greatly add to the disaster preparedness of the University, and I hope we can move forward to ensure this happens.

Additionally, I am concerned with Sarah Greenleaf’s reporting. Ms. Greenleaf never attempted to contact me or anyone in our GPSS office to verify Mr. Charvat’s claims. This is careless reporting.

If you are a graduate or professional student and interested in filling this position, please e-mail me at gpssvp@u.washington.edu or call (206) 543-8576.

Marcus Riccelli

GPSS vice president