Year: Junior
Major: Political science
Hometown: Delaware County, Pennsylvania
Student organizations/campus activities: GW Catholics, GW Democrats, Balkan Student Association
Previous SGA/student government experience: Assistant to the Special Committee on Dining Reform, CCAS senator, pro tempore, vice president
Which actor plays you in the movie about your life: Barbie Ferreira or Danny DeVito
Favorite campus view: Elliott School of International Affairs City View Room balcony
Favorite meal deal or meal swipe: Sushi Do
Favorite sports team: Philadelphia Eagles, Flyers and Phillies
Favorite musical artist: Doechii
Liz Stoddard said she has a track record of getting what she wants.
Stoddard started her Student Government Association tenure during her first semester at GW as a first-year legislative assistant before climbing the ranks, serving as a Columbian College of Arts & Sciences senator, Senate pro tempore and now vice president, positions she said taught her how to navigate tough conversations with officials and advocate in the best interest of students. Now a junior, she’s set her sights on the body’s top post, aiming to draw on her experience navigating GW’s bureaucracy to hold officials accountable and amplify student voices — an effort she argues is especially critical as she worries that officials, wary of potential retribution from President Donald Trump’s administration, have become less willing to be transparent.
“Right now, more than ever, we need a strong leader for students who’s not going to back down from protecting, defending and advocating for students,” Stoddard said. “I find myself to be the most equipped in this race for that.”
Stoddard said students’ trust in the University to act in the best interest of students has “never been worse” in her three years at GW than it is now because of officials’ “complicit response” to the Trump administration. She said officials haven’t publicly reaffirmed protections for transgender students, reproductive rights and the existence of the Multicultural Student Services Center since Trump took office last year — all topics she believes officials should send a message about to make it known where they stand on issues and what protections students have.
Stoddard said her tenure as vice president has equipped her with the experience necessary to push officials on issues affecting students, which she said she’s done this year with their lack of messaging about diversity, equity and inclusion rollbacks and what to do in the event an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer is on campus. She said she’s urged officials to put out statements about issues more promptly, also saying she played a role in getting Interim Provost John Lach to release a statement about the University’s commitment to DEI.
Her platform outlines plans that include advocating for timely and honest communication from officials to the community on tuition, housing and major policy changes, along with clear reasoning behind why they made decisions.
“Students deserve honesty about why decisions are being made and not after there’s backlash, but just tell us why you’re doing it,” Stoddard said. “Every student would respect that more than it be completely silent.”
As president, Stoddard said she’ll work to ensure GW’s cost of attendance matches the value students get out of campus resources, aiming to expand weekend and late-night or early-morning dining options, establish scheduled FixIt requests to additional residence halls and provide LGBTQ+ student resources and graduate childcare services. She said she’s already had success this year starting several initiatives to improve the student experience — including some she promised in her platform last year — like securing graduate housing for the first time since 2022, graduate childcare discounts and starting the FixIt pilot program in South and Lafayette halls.
Stoddard added that she’s been successful with advocating for women’s gym hours, late night dining options and ensuring students’ access to the finals exam schedule at the start of the semester.
“I have a track record of getting these really big initiatives done and responding to the really small ones quickly and getting that stuff done for students,” Stoddard said. “It situates me in a very good position to not only be an advocate but to know what is feasible and to also know when to push.”
In her platform, Stoddard detailed her intentions to press University leadership to prioritize certain budget items and cut obsolete ones, like free student cable and faxing services and to redirect funding toward highly demanded student resources, like dining hours, advising services and improved facilities.
“Even though we’re in a budget crisis, we still got late-night dining, we still got early-morning Shenkman, we still got the FixIt pilot program, we still got a lot of these programs,” Stoddard said. “One of the biggest things is we can still be successful during this time.”
Stoddard also said the SGA has been successful with formalizing communication with other GW’s other governing bodies this year, also adding she will continue to work with the Staff Council, Faculty Senate and Student Bar Association if elected to strengthen collaboration and student participation in the University’s decision-making processes. In order to do so, Stoddard said she’ll assign SGA members to sit in on the three other bodies’ meetings — and for members of the other bodies to also attend SGA meetings — so the bodies become more familiar with each other.
She also said she wants the heads of each governing body to meet together at least twice per semester and create a report of their meetings to reflect on the work the group’s have done to move initiatives forward. She said the more formalized communication between the governing bodies can then lead to a draft shared-governance framework close to the Faculty Senate’s principles.
“The truth is, if all of our bodies pass something together, the administration has to look at it,” Stoddard said. “That is one of the things that they have to do.”
