GW launched a task force to assess how the One Big Beautiful Bill Act’s $307 billion cut to federal student aid will impact graduate enrollment and pinpoint safe private loan alternatives — one of its first formal responses to higher education policy shifts under the Trump administration.

The task force will meet throughout the fall semester to identify how students, particularly at the graduate level, can safely engage in the private loan market as universities brace for stricter federal student borrowing limits and the termination of the Grad PLUS program next July, Vice Provost for Enrollment and Student Success Jay Goff told the Faculty Senate Tuesday. Goff’s announcement, delivered at a special senate meeting titled “addressing challenges facing the University,” comes as schools nationwide grapple with the termination of a graduate student loan program credited with fueling a decade-long rise in graduate degrees and programs.

The creation of the student loan task force follows the passage of President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” earlier this summer which includes a provision that will phase out the Grad PLUS program next July and appears to be one of officials’ first steps to alter University policy in response to the new federal administration.

The Grad PLUS loan program, introduced in July 2006 during the Bush administration, allows graduate students to borrow up to the full cost of attendance, minus any other financial aid received. But Republican lawmakers earlier this summer moved to terminate the program on July 1, 2026, and set new federal borrowing limits. Graduate students will now be capped at $20,500 in federal funding a year, with a $100,000 lifetime borrowing limit, or $50,000 a year with a $200,000 lifetime limit if they’re in a professional school like medical or law.

“The financial aid process for the graduate students will be very similar to what it was before, but instead of receiving the loans from the federal government and the Department of Education, they’ll be receiving those loans from private lenders,” Goff said at the meeting.

Goff said officials expect the task force to propose a plan by December — after officials receive federal regulations, which they expect between September and October — outlining how students can move forward with private lenders while avoiding involvement with “predatory groups.” Goff said the task force already met once for a preliminary meeting after interim Provost John Lach tasked him with creating the group earlier this summer.

At the meeting, officials also presented enrollment data to explain the University’s ongoing structural deficit, highlighting the continued impact of federal policies on international student enrollment.

Goff said undergraduate international student enrollment dropped by 5 percent over the past five academic years and will continue to decline this year due to delays in issuing student visas as a result of Trump’s travel ban. He also said about 12 percent of undergraduate students were international in 2019-20, but the number dropped to about seven percent in 2024-25 and is estimated to decrease by another half percent this academic year due to visa complications.

Trump’s travel ban, which began on June 9, bars or limits entry to the United States for citizens of 19 countries.

Goff said international master’s and doctoral students are the only group of graduate students whose enrollment has declined. He added that the University plans to continue its Rev Up marketing campaign — which officials launched in late 2023 — to boost graduate student enrollment in the D.C. area in an effort to offset the drop in international student numbers.

Officials said the continued decline in international student enrollment this academic year, which is estimated to be another half percent, coupled with GW’s status as a tuition-dependent University is exacerbating the years-long structural budget deficit the University faces. Goff said since international students typically receive little financial aid and pay full tuition, the drop in international student enrollment has significantly impacted revenue. 

International Chinese student enrollment has seen the biggest hit, dropping by almost 70 percent from fiscal year 2019 to 2025, according to officials’ presentation.

Goff told the Staff Council in July that between two and three dozen international students from countries affected by Trump’s travel ban are bracing for delayed returns to campus or requesting to defer their enrollment due to August visa appointment dates. 

University spokesperson Shannon McClendon said the University has created asynchronous start options for students facing delays securing visa appointments. She said visa delays in some cases will require students to delay their studies to a later term.

Jeffrey Ackman, a faculty senator and the chair of the Department of Psychiatry, asked officials how much the University is losing due to the decline in international student enrollment. Goff said GW could face a $10 million decrease in revenue from international student tuition because officials are expecting to see a 15 percent student summer attrition rate, where students commit to GW but ultimately do not enroll.

About 23,300 students have registered for the fall semester, Goff said, adding that the University typically enrolls an additional 1,800 to 2,000 students by the start of the semester. 

Goff said the number of students who receive Pell Grants rose by over 6 percent since 2019 as part of GW’s focus on enrolling more first-generation and low-income students. He said these students typically require “significant” aid, which has also contributed to the University’s rising expenses.

Roughly 20 percent of undergraduate students received Pell Grants as of 2024-25, according to Chief Financial Officer Bruno Fernandes’ presentation, an increase from 14.7 percent in 2019-20. The number of Pell Grant recipients is expected to rise to 21 percent for the 2025-26 academic year, according to the presentation.

Fernandes said the University faces a $24 million budget deficit as of July, where the University’s total expenses sat at around $1.35 billion, while its revenue sat at about $1.33 billion, per the presentation. The University’s deficit increased $10 million from May to July, according to the presentation. 

“This reflects the structural deficit is increasing and expenses continue to outpace revenue, which I stated is heavily reliant on net tuition revenue,” Fernandes said. 

McClendon said officials’ path forward for ensuring the University’s long- and short-term financial stability includes a combination of expense reduction measures, which could involve extending the hiring freeze officials put in place until at least Oct. 1.

“We want to think beyond this year and to the next three to five years,” Fernandes said. “That’s why multi-year planning is going to be very important as part of some of these issues because they’re not going to be one year issues, they’re going to drag over a period of several years.” 

Fernandes said that while the University’s staffing levels have declined over the past decade, administrative expenses have still increased. He attributed this rise not to the number of employees, but to higher compensation costs like merit-based salary increases and expanded employee benefits.

Lach said the target operating margin this year is $49 million University-wide, and individual deans will largely determine how to reach their budget targets. He said margin targets for schools are not increasing to cover growing expenses, and the margin for schools as a percentage has decreased since fiscal year 2019.

“Each school is largely empowered to determine how best to meet its target,” Lach said.

McClendon said deans are engaging with faculty and discussing next steps to achieve their margin targets, which include expense reductions.

During her presidential report, University President Ellen Granberg defended officials’ work to combat campus antisemitism after the Justice Department on Tuesday concluded that GW acted deliberately indifferent to reports of antisemitism. She said the University has clearly shown its commitment to addressing antisemitism and promoting an inclusive environment on campus through upholding a safe, respectful and accountable environment and taking the appropriate actions to hold individuals and organizations accountable. 

The department’s Civil Rights Division on Tuesday found that GW violated federal civil rights law by failing to combat antisemitism and wrote in a letter to Granberg they will enact “enforcement” measures against the University in the near future unless officials enter into a voluntary resolution agreement. 

“If you haven’t seen it, it focuses almost exclusively on the encampment, and so we still need to digest it, respond, but we will definitely keep the Senate updated as things evolve,” Granberg said.

Granberg also said the temporary voluntary salary cuts for University leadership announced in July have begun taking effect, and reductions will range from three percent to 10 percent depending on salary. The salary cuts for leadership include GW officers, vice provosts, vice presidents and deans, Granberg said.

“Now we all hope that these measures are going to be sufficient to address the current budgetary shortfalls, but we can’t fully predict the outcome,” Granberg said.

As payments to GW Basketball players commence as part of a recent NCAA settlement, Granberg also said officials won’t allocate money from tuition or other athletic programs to recruit and compensate players. Fernandes said the athletic department’s budget will not increase in fiscal year 2026. 

In July, the NCAA and student athletes reached a settlement to a long-standing legal dispute, which created a new revenue-sharing model allowing Division I schools to allocate up to $20.5 million annually to athletes. Granberg said she’s been in contact with Director of Athletics Michael Lipitz about paying student athletes.

“At this point, he has not heard any ideas that he would need to cut any sports as a result of this,” Granberg said.

The Senate went into a private executive session to discuss faculty concerns regarding the Medical Faculty Associates. The MFA has taken on more than $400 million in debt to GW and other entities and lost $48 million in the first half of FY2025, according to a March Faculty Senate report.

Officials first acknowledged in late April with their initial budget cuts announcement that the MFA contributed to the financial losses of the University. Granberg said at a May Faculty Senate meeting officials have made progress on their plan to combat the MFA’s financial losses, and there’s a “very good chance” officials will provide an update about the MFA in the fall but didn’t specify the timeline.

Dylan Ebs and Jenna Lee contributed reporting.