Year: Junior
Major: Philosophy
Hometown: Teaneck, New Jersey
Student organizations/campus activities: GW National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
SGA/student government experience: Bergen Community College Student Government Association Senator
Actor that plays you in the movie about your life: Tyler, The Creator
Favorite campus view: Mabel Nelson Thurston Hall penthouse
Favorite meal deal or meal swipe: Halal Shack
Favorite sports team: New York Knicks
Favorite musical artist: Olivia Dean

In January, Alfred Lewis Jr. arrived in D.C. with no clear sense of what the future might hold. Four months later, he is running for the Student Government Association’s top post.

Lewis said he became aware of gaps in student representation almost instantly after transferring to GW in January after talking to cultural organizations, like the GW chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the African Student Association, where students voiced concerns over limited input in University decision-making and unclear SGA funding rules. He said hearing about these issues pushed him to run for president, a decision he said was rooted in the lifelong commitment to service instilled in him by his parents.

“When there was an opportunity, like SGA, to be able to take student voices and their concerns and amplify it, I saw it as a responsibility on my end to come together with students,” Lewis said.

Lewis said that if elected, he would work with University officials to advocate for a student representative on the Board of Trustees to ensure student voices are included in decisions that affect student life at GW, building on former SGA President Ethan Fitzgerald’s push for student representation in his presidential platform, which ultimately did not succeed. In 2023, the SGA passed a resolution requesting the Board to add both the SGA president and vice president as full voting members, but the Board rejected the proposal without providing a reason.

Lewis said he plans to push officials to further clarify why they are not willing to consider student representation but did not specify how. He said he also plans to reach out to Fitzgerald to better understand where the former president’s efforts fell short, but he did not say when.

“The reason is something that I want to investigate, which is why I want to talk to the administration to see how could it look like, how can we negotiate for those things,” Lewis said.

Lewis said based on what he’s heard from student organization leaders, there’s been a historical “miscommunication” between the SGA and student organizations about funding. He said that when he spoke with leaders of the Indian Student Association, they told him they felt like they had no “clear criteria” on how to appeal to the SGA if they felt like they did not receive enough funding.

Student organizations can appeal their general allocations during the budget process for the semester they are requesting funds for, but they cannot appeal their co-sponsorships, which are primarily for extra supplies or event funding, according to the SGA bylaws.

He said he attended an SGA budget meeting a few weeks back where he learned how organizations are funded and plans to work with the next term’s SGA Finance Committee chair to conduct a “comprehensive review” of the current student organization funding system to make the guidelines more clear but finalize the details of the review and how it will be conducted after he’s elected. 

The SGA currently uses a “tier system” as a rubric for its general allocation funding decisions, with criteria including the number of students expected to benefit from the funding request, how necessary the funding is to the organization’s “core identity” and the cost-effectiveness of the proposal. Lewis said he learned at the budget meeting that the SGA uses different factors to allocate general funds to organizations, like an organization’s size and whether it is on or off campus, creating a “frustration” for students who do not fully understand the process.

He said that at the budget meeting, a representative from the International Students Association raised similar complaints about funding transparency as those Lewis heard from the organizations he spoke to.

“When things are taken case by case, I can see how students may feel frustrated because it appears there are no clear guidelines,” Lewis said. “I would make sure that whatever the process is, it is one that is consistent and clear.”

Lewis said he wants to implement a “forgiveness meal swipes” program, giving students a 10-minute window to exit a dining hall without it counting as a meal swipe for situations when a student enters and does not find anything they want to eat. Under the current system, students on the All Access and Revolutionary 85 plans must wait 1 hour before swiping again after a meal swipe. 

Lewis said his plans to prevent students from taking advantage of the system are not yet concrete, but he is considering a “cooldown” system that would require students to wait 2 to 3 minutes before swiping again, aimed at preventing students from swiping for friends and obtaining multiple meals. He said he would also reach out to dining hall officials to explore possible system changes and, if that is not feasible, would push for more frequent updates to the GW Dining website to address inconsistencies between posted menus and what is actually being served.

“The specifics are things that will definitely still be worked out, but I’ll make sure whatever the grace period is, it’s appropriate enough so that it’s not allowing for students to abuse the system,” Lewis said.

Lewis said as president he will start “listening tours” where he will periodically check in with organizations and students on campus to ensure he knows their concerns. Lewis said his tours will differ from the current policy requiring the president, the vice president and SGA senators to hold weekly office hours, as he will be coming to the organizations instead of the other way around.

“Even when I’m in office, the listening won’t stop,” Lewis said, “I’m always going to make sure that I’m still checking in with clubs and students on campus to evaluate how we are doing.”