Year: Sophomore
Major: Political Science
Hometown: Martinsburg, West Virginia
Student organizations/campus activities: Girls Who Lead, African Student Association, National Council of Negro Women
SGA/student government experience: Community, Advocacy and Inclusion Committee chair, CCAS undergraduate senator, deputy director of diversity, equity and inclusion, legislative assistant for the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee
Actor that would play you in the movie about your life: Kerry Washington
Favorite campus view: J. William Fulbright Hall roof
Favorite meal deal or meal swipe: Chaat House
Favorite sports team: Ivory Coast national football team
Favorite musical artist: Zara Larsson

Aicha Sy believes divisions inside student government are reflected in how it connects with students.

Sy said the Student Government Association’s perceived seriousness can make it harder for members to form personal connections with one another, reinforcing the idea among students that senators are less approachable and more distant than their peers. She plans to combat this by reworking town halls, building a policy-writing office and expanding social media to help humanize senators and help students better understand their work.

“Making it a place that’s more enjoyable, then that encourages more people to want to join the org and really strikes out all of the misconceptions that a lot of people spew out about SGA,” Sy said.

Sy said she has observed senators struggling to understand the parameters of their roles, limiting their ability to use those positions to their full potential and leaving students unsure of what the SGA does for them. She said she wants to create a policy-writing office staffed by the SGA Senate’s Community, Advocacy and Inclusion Committee, where non-SGA-affiliated students can bring issues they are facing on campus and be paired with a senator to translate them into policy.

“I think I’ve established a lot of momentum in terms of my involvement with SGA, and I thought that the best way to really harp on that and maximize the impact I can have on campus was pursuing the position of vice president,” Sy said.  

In her platform, Sy details ideas like a forum for first-year students, which would bring them together for a roundtable discussion with the SGA about issues they face at the University. She said first-years who participate in the forum would become “point people” for their peers, hearing students’ concerns and informing the SGA about them. She said she would advertise this forum and other town halls by reaching out to student organizations that many first-years are in, which she said would increase turnout, including getting students to join the forum with their friends, rather than alone, which can be intimidating.

Sy said she wants to rework how the SGA structures its town halls, which saw low turnout from non-SGA students this year, by making them more of a roundtable discussion rather than students posing questions to a panel. She said town halls this semester saw limited turnout because the panel model was not attractive to students, and the new, more conversational model would be more appealing.

“I know that I’m not going to leave class at 6 p.m. on a Tuesday to go and watch a panel of other students talk about things that they want to do,” Sy said. “I think it needs to be more conversation based.”

Two of Sy’s four roles within the SGA have focused on diversity, which she said has shaped her strongest asset as a candidate: her ability to empathize with and connect to GW students across backgrounds and identities. Sy pointed to a listening circle she hosted as deputy director of diversity, equity and inclusion with Latino student organizations, saying it deepened her understanding of their experiences on campus.

“I really pride myself in my curiosity and trying to figure out other people’s experiences, and this position solely relies on understanding the needs of the student body,” Sy said. “And I think that’s a trait that comes inherently to me.”

Sy said after the recent tuition hike, bringing the estimated cost of attendance to over $98,000 next academic year, and cuts to student services this year, GW’s affordability is students’ top concern. Sy said she knows she will not be able to lower the cost of attendance as vice president, but she would advocate for more transparency between University officials and the student body about where tuition dollars go and context for why costs are “constantly rising.”

“We need to meet students where they are in terms of having an institution that’s affordable and can still provide us with the same resources we signed up for when we committed,” Sy said. 

Sy said University officials need to find better ways to connect with and gather feedback from students before making major institutional decisions like selling the Virginia Science and Technology Campus or cuts to student services like the reduced frequency of the Mount Vernon Express shuttle service by 50 percent this semester.

She said she would encourage officials to gather feedback from students in person by tabling at residence halls or having conversations around campus, similar to how they have engaged students about the University’s new campus plan.

“There should be another method in terms of getting that student feedback and having those conversations, rather than slyly sneaking it into emails or slyly sneaking it into forms around campus,” Sy said.