Year: Junior
Major: Political Communication
Student Organizations/Activities: GW Students Against Sexual Assault
SGA Experience: Speaker of the Undergraduate Senate at American University
Favorite Vendor on GWorld Dining: Poppabox
Your Favorite “Only at GW” Moment: Intellectual camaraderie with other women
Favorite class: Introduction to Web Production with Reginald Cunningham
Zodiac Sign: Cancer
Which actor would play you in a movie of your life: Katniss-era Jennifer Lawrence
Role Model: My parents
Go-to study spot: Lower level of the University Student Center or the second floor of Gelman Library

Aly McCormick said the Student Government Association has “lost the plot.”

McCormick said when she transferred to GW from American University in the fall of 2023, she attended a few SGA meetings and noticed that a culture of political infighting among senators shifted the senate’s focus away from students’ needs. She said if elected vice president, she will use her perspective as an SGA “outsider” and experience serving in student government at American to identify and combat instances where political competition trumps the SGA’s commitment to advocating for students’ safety, support and access to resources.

“I think the meetings come across as a little bit of a showdown between senators and a lot of games are played,” McCormick said.

McCormick said she first realized the impact of activism when she served as the director for the New Jersey chapter of March for Our Lives during her senior year of high school, where she called on constituents to support a ban on assault weapons and organized a town hall with Representative Andy Kim (D-NJ). She said during her sophomore year at American, she served as senate speaker and outlined specific goals for committee meetings to improve efficiency and prevent committee members from fighting over what should be prioritized.

McCormick was the first student to announce a campaign for the vice president position and said if elected she will work to increase sexual assault prevention and awareness and grow transparency between the SGA and students on funding allocation for student organizations. She said she will allow all students to attend financial committee meetings that are currently closed door and make the meeting minutes public so students don’t have to request access to the summaries.

Student groups can present their funding needs to the committee — which is responsible for dividing up funds — and access the minutes that document its discussions and decisions but can’t attend every committee meeting in person, including those where members consider funding requests and finalize allocations. SGA President Arielle Geismar ran on an initiative to host workshops for sharing more information on how the allocation process works, but she has not implemented these workshops.

“It’s not that they’re asking inherently for more money although I’m sure everyone would love to have more money,” McCormick said. “It’s that they want to understand why they can’t get it. I care a lot about an open, honest, transparent financial system.”

She said if elected she will implement a Survivors’ Bill of Rights to ensure all students who have experienced sexual assault know their legal rights. She said she talked with a variety of students who felt unsupported by the Title IX Office on campus because the office discouraged them from reporting their cases by saying the individual they would be filing against would likely be found not responsible.

She said her primary goal is to make sure students know someone is always listening to them and working on their behalf by attending various student organizations’ meetings and continuing to talk to people.

“At the very, very least my end game is to make sure that your voice is heard and you’ll understand why something happens or why something doesn’t happen,” she said.

McCormick said if elected she will work to extend the hours at Lerner Health and Wellness Center to 11 p.m. during the weekdays and from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on the weekends. She said the adjusted hours will reflect the times when students are more likely to exercise.

Officials increased the Lerner Health and Wellness hours in August 2023 after they were shortened during the pandemic. Before March 2020, Lerner was open from 6:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. on weekdays, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturdays and 11 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. on Sundays.

She said the camaraderie between GW students and the way they continually educate and learn from each other by engaging in difficult conversations regarding social issues helps create an understanding campus community. She said she hopes to reframe the goals of the SGA to honor and uplift campus culture by mitigating internal competition.

“Well it’s not that they don’t care, but I don’t think people see it as a strong advocacy force,” McCormick said. “And what I really care about is there is such a great opportunity to have an ear with administration, serving to change our lives.”