The Student Government Association held a joint town hall with various disability-focused student organizations Tuesday night, where students voiced concerns to officials about accessibility compliance across the Foggy Bottom and Mount Vernon campuses.
The event — hosted in collaboration with the Disabled Students Collective, GW National Student Speech, Language and Hearing Association and GW Chronic Health Advocates — featured a panel of 12 officials, including Campus Living and Residential Education Associate Vice President of Business Services Seth Weinshel and Assistant Vice President of Campus Operations Nicholas Gingue. Officials shared renovation updates in Mitchell Hall and responded to concerns students at the meeting raised about the recent snow removal process leaving narrow paths around campus that were not accessible for students who use mobility aids and wheelchair accessibility on the Mount Vernon Express and SafeRide service.
Several student accessibility advocates organized the town hall, including SGA Sen. Jonesy Strell (CCAS-U), Chronic Health Advocates President Lilly Shaw and Disabled Students Collective Events Coordinator Alex Radt.
Students had the option to submit anonymous questions through an online form or directly ask the panel in-person. Roughly a dozen students attended.
Weinshel shared updates for the newly renovated Mitchell Hall for the 2026-27 school year, telling attendees that the building now has 300 single rooms, an elevator that will go up to the roof and new accessible restrooms on each floor similar to Thurston Hall.
At an SGA town hall last February, students said the elevators in Mitchell Hall were consistently out of order, causing problems for students with disabilities. Some students said they could not visit their friends in the residence hall because they could not get up to their rooms.
“We’re really excited to be able to bring this building back online as a gut-renovated building that is then an accessible building,” Weinshel said.
Weinshel also said officials prioritized common spaces and laundry rooms on each floor in Mitchell Hall to ensure accessibility, meaning residents will not have to travel to the basement to access those spaces.
One question a student submitted online asked what the University’s timeline is for making sure all academic buildings, residence halls and dining halls meet the accessibility requirements outlined in the Americans with Disabilities Act. Officials construct all new buildings and major renovation projects on GW campuses to meet accessibility guidelines, according to the Accessibility at GW website, but Weinshel said some older buildings on campus would not meet current standards.
“There are a number of buildings on campus that would lack today’s standards but do meet code based on the age and nature of when they were built,” Weinshel said.
Weinshel said officials have plans to increase accessibility in residence halls, like Strong, Fulbright and Munson Halls. The entrances to these residence halls are currently accessible, but individuals utilizing a wheelchair need to use a lift to access the elevators.
Over the summer, officials completed deferred maintenance projects — which officials scheduled for future years because they require long-term planning and investment — to increase accessibility across campus, adding a ramp to Francis Scott Key Hall and upgrading the FSK and Guthridge Hall lobbies.
Assistant Vice President of Campus Development Adam Aaronson said all GW buildings either meet ADA standards or officials are planning to uplift the building’s accessibility in the near future.
Aaronson said older buildings, like the historic rowhouses on campus, pose “a significant challenge” for adapting accessibility initiatives because some are raised up from the sidewalk, require stairs to get to the front door and lack elevators and accessible restrooms.
“We have heard a lot of feedback about some of our older buildings, some of our historic row houses, challenges with accessibility in those buildings,” Aaronson said. “So that’s absolutely something that we’re looking at as part of the campus plan process.”
Gingue addressed concerns students voiced regarding the snow removal on campus from the storm that dumped several inches of snow on the city at the end of last month, resulting in officials canceling in-person classes for five days and road closures. He said Campus Operations tried to clear sidewalks as wide as possible for accessibility awareness, as city officials are responsible for crosswalks while sidewalks are GW’s responsibility.
“The toughest part with that past storm was that we had gotten campus cleared in a couple of days, and the city was having a really hard time removing snow,” Gingue said. “They were just, kept putting snow on all the curbs that we would clear and back on the sidewalks.”
Gingue said Campus Operations brought in more contractors to assist in snow efforts, but he is looking forward to proposing new additions to GW’s snow plan to quicken the process next time.
“I have some ideas that I want to run by our team on how I feel like we can be more efficient when it comes to snow,” said Gingue.
Director of Transportation and Logistics Services Charlie Wurz addressed accessibility concerns students raised in regard to the Vex and Virginia Science and Technology Campuses buses. Wurz said the buses are recently fully ADA-compliant with wheelchair accessible ramps, also saying officials added alternate Vex drop-off and pick-up spots on the Vern in flatter areas, such as in front of Somers Hall, for mobility device users.
Wurz said this semester, officials also expanded the vehicles available through GW Safe Ride, including an ADA wheelchair compliant vehicle, which will provide service around the Foggy Bottom campus and also take students to and from the Mount Vernon Campus, Wurz said.
“What we did this year was to always make sure that one vehicle was always in service during all operational hours of Safe Ride,” Wurz said.
The post was updated to include information about student organizers who arranged the town hall.
