Updated: April 11, 2025, at 11:07 a.m. 

The Student Government Association on Monday passed thee bills to amend its bylaws by merging committees, eliminating “unnecessary” language and instating an open-door policy for finance meetings.

The package of bills — dubbed the Raise High Act, the Fair Act and the Clear Act — aim to remove redundancies from the SGA bylaws to make the over 100-page document easier for SGA members and the student body to navigate by condensing information and reformatting the document itself. Ben Wieser, SGA Vice President Ethan Lynne’s deputy chief of staff, said the bills will ensure the SGA will “exercise restraint” by condensing bylaw language for clarity.

Wieser said the SGA bylaws are currently 10,000 words longer than the first Harry Potter book, which makes it difficult for students to navigate and quickly comprehend the information. He said the Raise High Act and Clear Act will remove redundancy in the bylaws so SGA members can easily navigate the document and use it to craft legislation and advocate for students.

Wieser added that the Raise High Act will also merge the undergraduate and graduate student life committees into one, as well as the undergraduate and graduate education policy committees, while still ensuring graduate and undergraduate representation on each committee.

“We should note public accountability and inclusion to the maximum extent possible, and we should only maintain models that can be reasonably enforced and followed,” Wieser said.

SGA Senate Pro Tempore Liz Stoddard, who sponsored all three acts, said the Fair Act will increase funding transparency for student organizations by allowing students to attend SGA Senate finance meetings. Currently, the meetings are closed to non-SGA members, per the current SGA bylaws.

“One of the most important things that the Act does is open finance meetings to members of the public through an RSVP system,” Stoddard said.

The Fair Act aims to expand the accountability of the SGA to students by requiring online live SGA expenditure trackers where students can access the finances and conflict of interest declaration forms for Finance Committee members during meetings.

SGA senators also unanimously passed the Grade Forgiveness Act, which urges University officials to create a more “comprehensive” grade forgiveness policy by allowing students to select courses from their transcript to convert to a pass/fail credit. Stoddard, who sponsored the resolution, said she incorporated many “safeguards” into the bill, like limiting the use of the policy to one course per student during their undergraduate careers. SGA President Ethan Fitzgerald encouraged senators to pass the resolution, stating that one poor grade in a class should not prevent a student from securing future opportunities.

GW currently has a grade forgiveness policy for undergraduate students where students can request to retake up to three courses for credit if they receive a grade lower than a D+.

“All it’s doing is making sure that the one class that you take, whether it be for personal reasons, professional reason or disagreement with your professor, does not permanently stay in your transcript,” Stoddard said.

The SGA Senate passed the Day for the Nations and Org President Meeting Enshrinement acts to mandate the events continue into future administrations of the SGA.

This year, the SGA held the inaugural Day for the Nations event March 31 where more than 50 multicultural student organizations set up tables and showcased traditional song and dance in University Yard. Also this year, SGA President Ethan Fitzgerald and other SGA members started hosting monthly student organization presidents meetings, inviting student group leaders to voice concerns about issues, like budget allocations and the Engage platform to SGA members.

“What it does say is that the president must have his interactions with student organizations, whether that be multicultural or athletic or competition based,” Stoddard said.

Christy Anthony, the director of Conflict Education and Student Accountability, and Charles Drummond, an assistant director in CESA, presented to the SGA Senate about a revision to the Division for Student Affairs’ drug and alcohol amnesty program that aims to lengthen the period a student is eligible for amnesty for a drug and alcohol usage charge.

Drummond said under the current policy, students are only eligible for exemption from formal nonacademic student conduct action on the first instance of being documented as intoxicated. They said the proposed changes will expand amnesty to “more than just one time.”

“I think the goal is that we are really looking for students to feel comfortable calling for help, both for themselves or for their peers and not be scared,” Drummond said.

Fitzgerald signed an executive order to institutionalize Pride on April 10 every academic year to celebrate the queer community on campus. The event will feature free banned books, pride merchandise and food.

“​​The executive order affirms our commitment to uplifting the LGBTQ+ community, and we mean every letter of that community,” Fitzgerald said. “Some people want to walk away from every letter, but we will stand up for all of our students on our campus and ensure that students feel seen, valued and celebrated.”

The SGA will hold their final meeting of the term Monday, April 21 at 8 p.m. in the USC Grand Ballroom.

This post has been updated to correct the following: 

A prior version of this post used incorrect pronouns for Charles Drummond. We regret this error.