Students this week will elect GW’s 111th Student Government Association president, a role with powers and limitations that former SGA leaders say are largely misunderstood by the student body they serve.

Last year, a survey of nearly 100 GW students revealed a lack of knowledge about the role of the president and the functions of the governing body itself. Former SGA presidents and vice presidents said support from officials often defined their ability to accomplish big-ticket agenda items during their terms, reinforcing a relationship in which student leaders must accept the boundaries of their own power.

Current SGA President Ethan Fitzgerald said the bulk of the SGA’s success in its advocacy efforts lies within University officials’ acceptance of its suggestions. A concern he has heard from students throughout his term this year deals with tuition, with students routinely coming to him and other SGA leaders with questions about where their tuition dollars go, he said.

He said students also came to him upset by the University’s restriction of access to the Milken Institute School of Public Health and accused the SGA of taking part in restricting access themselves. Fitzgerald said the SGA was as “shocked” as students were and worked to restore campus-wide access to the building.

“We can always advocate, but I think there are sometimes decisions that administration make that people think, ‘Maybe the SGA was part of this,’” Fitzgerald said. “That’s not necessarily the case.”

There is no clause in the SGA’s bylaws that outline a requirement of the administration to respond to or take action on SGA resolutions. Members of student government said last year that a lack of communication from officials on legislation stalled their ability to enact tangible change.

Fitzgerald said he has heard “differing” opinions from University officials about whether or not SGA resolutions and legislation carry any binding requirements for the University to act, despite resolutions passed by the body this year that demanded officials to adopt changes to internal policies, like advertising Title IX resources and lowering textbook costs.

“When our Faculty Senate passes a resolution, that’s taken pretty seriously by the administration,” Fitzgerald said. “I would ask that as students, as significant stakeholders, and I believe as we should be treated, as shared governance partners at this University, I think if we pass a resolution, it should be taken seriously.”

Members of GW administration always attend the Faculty Senate’s monthly meetings, but senators have criticized administrative decisions and processes they say have violated agreed-upon principles from passed senate resolutions, like shared governance.

University spokesperson Shannon Mitchell said the Division for Student Affairs and University leadership meet “regularly” with the SGA to provide updates and “recommendations” to the body’s legislation and resolutions.

“Response times and outcomes may vary depending on a variety of factors and circumstances, and SGA’s collaboration with the university is necessary as part of this process,” Mitchell said in an email. “Hearing our student government’s needs, concerns, and ideas remains a priority for the university.”

Mitchell declined to comment on the factors which determine whether the administration takes action on SGA legislation.

She also declined to comment on what action officials have taken following the SGA Senate’s passage of resolutions, like the Textbook Affordability Act — which urged officials to release the final exam schedule earlier in the year and cut textbook costs — and the Survivor’s Bill of Rights, which requested that the Title IX Office further publicize trainings.

Kate Carpenter, who served as SGA — then known as the Student Association — vice president during its 2021-22 term, said the SGA president holds a “vast” amount of power over University decisions because of their access to top officials, like GW’s chief financial officer. Administrators hold “a lot of weight” in the ability of SGA presidents to make progress on their initiatives, she said.

She said her time on the SGA showed her the hurdles and long timelines of negotiating with administration to obtain action on SGA initiatives, citing successes of her administration, like the U-Pass program, which she said took years of student advocacy to University officials before successful implementation of the program in 2022.

Carpenter, who received a masters in higher education leadership at the University of Texas at Austin and currently works as an education policy advocate, said it was “difficult” at times when student interests conflicted with those of the administration, citing social movements on campus, like student desires for University divestment from fossil fuels.

In order to maintain the SGA’s “close relationship” with officials, her administration worked to connect student organizations to officials so they could advocate their needs directly, she said.

“We kind of had to skirt around with administrators because we didn’t want that door to be closed between them,” Carpenter said. “And so it was like, how can we enable other student leaders to advocate without the student body president or vice president being the direct ones to speak on behalf for them?” Carpenter said.

She said it is “critical” that aspiring SGA presidents have built an “innate trust” with officials before assuming the role because it can be “really difficult” for administration to rely on a student to attend meetings, like the Board of Trustees and maintain professionalism.

Her administration built trust through close communication with officials, ensuring the SGA president was the administration’s “first point of contact” to understand the greater student body’s perspective, she said.

“Without it, the advocacy and the power that they hold is really diminished without that relationship,” Carpenter said. “To have somebody that already has relationships with administrators, which is really difficult to say, going into the presidency on day one is a huge benefit.”

Christian Zidouemba, who helmed the body in 2022, said the SGA president has to be a “peacemaker” between administration and the student body to advocate for students while keeping in mind the University’s interests, which he said “frustrated” him at times.

He said many students “don’t understand” the timeline of initiatives, asking for immediate action on yearslong projects. Zidouemba said that during his term he worked to reduce the cost of Plan B and create a mobile GWorld option — initiatives he said needed continued effort by future SGA administrations to come to fruition.

“I found out that it takes time and also due to the bureaucracy of the SA that often slow things down,” Zidouemba said in a text message. “Ideally, one will hope to get all projects done, but realistically time is short.”

During his term, members of Zidouemba’s executive cabinet signed an open letter calling on him to urge officials to fire Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas from his position as a lecturer at GW Law.

Zidouemba said the University did not make the decision to hire Thomas “lightly,” and ultimately he had to consider the “admin side” of the situation over students’ freedom of speech because of the long-term “repercussions” GW could face for firing a professor.

He referred to the University as a “business” and said the SGA president must maintain relationships with University stakeholders, like trustees and students, by attending student organization events throughout their term to work efficiently on their platform goals.

“It’s not just for the student but also thinking long term, what’s good for the university, and oftentimes, there is a constraint between what’s needed for the student and what’s needed for the long-term of a business,” Zidouemba said.