For candidates vying for the Student Government Association’s top posts, student concerns over President Donald Trump’s influence on higher education have made navigating shifting federal policies part of the job description.
Candidates running for SGA president and vice president said their conversations with students this campaign season have been shaped by student concerns over the Trump administration’s expanded immigration enforcement, crackdown on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and deployment of federal troops in and around GW’s campus. They said those conversations informed platform priorities centered on urging officials to champion DEI initiatives and protect international students from immigration enforcement and federal scrutiny — measures they said reflect what they feel is the core of the SGA’s purpose of centering student interests in its advocacy.
The candidates praised the current SGA administration’s efforts to speak out for students through resolutions and statements condemning federal policies throughout the second Trump administration. They pointed to the resolutions calling on officials to formally ban Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents from campus career events and stand by their DEI commitments and SGA President Ethan Lynne’s statements about the “appalling” crackdown on protesters and international students as evidence that the SGA has taken a stand on political issues that matter to students.
The candidates said they want to build on what the current SGA has done by urging University officials to be more vocal about political issues impacting students, like Trump’s increased immigration operations and clampdown on international students, and offer resources to students who may be impacted by Trump’s policies.
Trump’s pressures on both higher education and D.C. have dominated campus politics over the last year. Since last January, the administration has launched two Department of Justice inquiries into the University — one for not adequately responding to antisemitism and one for alleged DEI hiring practices — deployed National Guard troops and ICE agents to D.C. to ramp up law enforcement operations and cracked down on student visa policies.
These moves have generated fear among students — both that they could face federal scrutiny or legal recourse for their immigration status or for speaking out for diversity initiatives and that the University is not willing to protect them this federal and legal pressure, candidates said.
Liz Stoddard, who is running for SGA president, said the SGA is not an inherently partisan institution, but the body’s mission is to weather issues that are impacting students. Over the last year, that’s increasingly meant responding to issues stemming from Trump’s policies.
“While the SGA’s mission might not be partisan or political, it is, at its very nature, an advocacy and representative body,” Stoddard said. “It means it has to advocate for students, no matter what the issue is.”
Stoddard has used this approach in her current role as SGA vice president, where she has led town halls to hear student concerns about National Guard presence near campus, pressed officials to make firmer commitments to DEI — as they did in a community message earlier this month — and condemned ICE operations near campus at senate meetings.
“Our advocacy has never been more important because our advocacy can actually lead to real change,” Stoddard said. “And it all depends on how you wield it, and as an experienced leader, I know how to wield it and navigate this bureaucracy and who to talk to and how to get to yes.”
Stoddard said those running for higher offices in the SGA cannot be afraid of taking public political stances and must encourage University officials, who she described as “tight-lipped” on issues of student safety and immigration enforcement near campus, to not stay silent for fear of federal retribution.
Specifically, Stoddard said officials “dropped the ball” by not making a specific community-wide statement about increased ICE presence on campus. She said officials cannot continue to “hide” crucial information in lengthy newsletters — like the Weekly Federal Update email officials launched in January 2025, which provide bullet points of “GW Updates” impacting the University specifically along with more general “Recent Federal Actions” documenting policy changes — but should instead send shorter, more targeted emails and host more community town halls addressing specific student concerns.
Officials did not issue a GW Alert when ICE conducted a raid at Circa in Foggy Bottom in September but later included the incident in their federal updates email. Stoddard said at a meeting following the raid that one of the SGA’s goals is to help students feel safe on campus, and the body will hold officials accountable for ensuring student safety.
“You need to be comfortable holding people accountable and advocating for an SGA that students are proud to have elected,” Stoddard said. “And that means stepping your foot into those political waters, even though they’re uncertain.”
Sophomore and SGA presidential candidate MJ Childs said federal policy has extra significance for GW students because of the campus’ proximity to the White House. He said part of the SGA president’s role is to “speak out” about federal policies that could impact students, like ICE operations and Trump’s crackdown on DEI, which he feels Lynne has done effectively during his term as president.
“We cannot pretend that politics don’t affect us because they affect everybody, no matter where your stance is on a political spectrum,” Childs said.
Childs’ presidential platform includes sections on DEI and ICE, outlining how he plans to establish a coalition of SGA members, student organization leaders, political advocacy groups and officials from the Office of Diversity, Equity and Community Engagement to discuss the state of DEI on campus. Students have warned that officials are yielding to federal pressure by rolling back diversity initiatives, leaving the state of DEI uncertain on campus.
Politics is not something you can ignore when heading a student government, Childs said, but he will never seek to attack certain student groups for their political opinions.
“The SGA’s role is to serve students and serve the people, and if these are pressing topics for society as a whole, then I think the SGA should take up a role in advocating and addressing those needs and concerns,” Childs said.
SGA Sen. Aicha Sy (CCAS-U), who is running for vice president, said she seeks to continue to stand up for students as she has done as a senator. Sy sponsored legislation in October calling on officials to ramp up resistance to Trump’s “unconstitutional federal interference” in higher education, which the Senate passed unanimously.
She said the October legislation, which called on the Board of Trustees to reject federal “monitoring and interference” into its operations, reflected student demands, arising from a form she and colleagues passed around to student organizations to sign describing their feelings about what the University should do to combat the Trump administration.
“Whether people want SGA to be a political institution or not, the main idea and the main purpose of our body is to represent students,” Sy said.
She said federal politics will naturally be a part of the SGA’s advocacy for students’ best interests as she has noticed a “standard of fear” among students due to the federal government’s infringement on higher education. She said Trump’s actions on immigration and citizenship are personal to her as both her parents are immigrants, and she believes no student should fear federal intervention when on GW’s campus.
Sy believes SGA’s advocacy should not always stem from leaders’ personal beliefs or strictly adhere to one political ideology but rather should reflect feedback the student body provides on what they want to see from their leaders.
“Education is at a danger whether you decide to resonate with the political party that’s in charge right now or not,” Sy said. “I think it’s important to address that changes have been made to our university because of the circumstances that have been put in place.”
Sy said if elected vice president, she would prioritize consultation with student organizations to ensure her decisions are representative of the student body’s feelings. She said she would hold events like “know your rights” trainings and provide safety resources to compensate for officials’ unwillingness to be proactive in protecting students’ rights.
Alfred Lewis Jr., a junior transfer student running for SGA president, said during his campaign he has solicited the opinions of diverse student populations and organizations on issues, like Trump’s National Guard deployment and ICE operations near campus, to inform his advocacy as it’s become increasingly difficult to separate changes in federal policy from campus issues.
But Lewis was adamant that silence from the SGA is not an option when policies have the potential to hurt students.
“As SGA president, definitely we will definitely have a stance on whatever’s going on at the federal level, especially policies that are impacting students because not having a stance is still a stance in itself,” Lewis said.
Lewis highlighted Trump’s visa policies and scrutiny on international students — which officials said caused a drop off in international student enrollment last fall as federal policies directly impacting GW students. He said it’s the SGA’s responsibility to take firm stances on these policy issues to show leaders acknowledge the harm on students.
“I do believe that when policies are affecting students, there needs to be courageous, bold leadership, taking stances to support students and navigate whatever those policies are that are affecting them,” Lewis said. “And I don’t believe it comes from neutrality.”
SGA Sen. Cheydon Naleimaile-Evangelista (CCAS-U), who is running for vice president, said representing students is the “first and foremost” duty of the SGA. He said recent events, like ICE agents allegedly using false pretenses to enter a building at Columbia University to detain a student, have forced the SGA to reckon with and act on how federal actions could impact students.
He said events like those at Columbia informed his decision to help run an event through the SGA last month where students could talk to an immigration lawyer about their legal rights. He said as vice president he would want to prioritize transparency about federal pressures facing GW through more events and social media statements informing students of their rights and describing his conversations with officials.
“Because of the drastic change in the federal administration, students are scared, and I think the SGA needs to be that advocate,” Naleimaile-Evangelista said.
