As officials cut campus services, raise tuition and slash programs in the name of austerity, Student Government Association presidential candidates say students remain excluded from the decision-making process — a trend they are pledging to reverse.
The three candidates running for the SGA’s top post said their goal is for officials to better include students in its shared governance — a collaborative leadership model that shares decision-making authority between community members and administrators — after a year in which officials made sweeping decisions without consulting the community, like raising GW’s cost of attendance to nearly $100,000 and cutting campus services. The candidates want greater collaboration between students and GW’s decision makers, including the Board of Trustees, but differ on how to achieve it, with some pledging to prioritize closer partnership with the Faculty Senate and others calling for a student seat on the Board.
Officials in May announced plans to slash the University’s fiscal year 2026 expense budget by 3 percent across the board to combat a yearslong structural deficit. Over the academic year, those cuts have affected nearly every aspect of GW — from officials halving the frequency of Mount Vernon Express shuttles to laying off 43 staff, axing weekend dining hall hours and terminating 24-hour security in some residence halls.
Students, faculty and staff have raised concerns that officials made cuts to University operations without consulting them, with officials often denying the changes were budget-related. In response to questions about how officials decide on cuts, University spokesperson Shannon McClendon said last September that officials evaluate “fiscal responsibility” and community needs before changing resources like dining, transportation and security.
But candidates in this week’s SGA elections said they do not buy that narrative. In interviews with The Hatchet, they said officials cutting student services while simultaneously raising GW’s estimated cost of attendance next academic year to over $98,000 for returning students and instituting a three-year on-campus residency requirement for new students reflects the University’s desire to protect its financial health over providing students the services and experiences they paid for.
The students aiming to helm the student body said that needs to change.
MJ Childs, a sophomore presidential candidate, has largely centered his platform around a single question: “Where’s my $100k?” — a reference to the University’s rising cost of attendance — making videos walking around campus showing dining locations and the Student Health Center closed. Childs said the “throughline” of his campaign is bridging a gap he sees between students and officials, who he said have vastly different visions of how to balance financial health with student services.
He said officials have made vast cuts to student services this year — like cutting Vex frequencies and slashing rideshare credits for Vern residents — without consulting or properly notifying students before implementing them. He said GW is a tuition-dependent institution, but the University’s top officials seldom interact with students, leaving a divide between those who make the cuts and those who feel the impact.
“You can’t make those large decisions when you depend on us to have the institution run as a whole,” Childs said.
Childs said if elected SGA president he would work to create more formalized opportunities for faculty, students, staff and top officials to be in the same room to discuss shared priorities through discussion groups that would meet a few times each semester. Childs in his platform calls on the Board of Trustees to create a “student-centered committee” to assess concerns, develop initiatives to support student life and boost administrator accountability.
The University currently holds a slate of collaborative working groups with students, faculty and staff to discuss shared issues. Officials revived the Joint Committee of Faculty & Students in January, made up of seven student representatives appointed by the SGA president, seven faculty members and seven administrators, who meet regularly to discuss issues facing the University and potential solutions.
“What is benefiting faculty typically also benefits students as well, and what benefits us benefits them,” Childs said. “Because we’re all here essentially working together. All of us are trying to benefit and also give to this community.”
The Board previously included students in task forces, like one discussing the renaming of on-campus buildings and memorials and another focused on environmental, social and governance responsibility. Officials did not include students in a task force discussing shared governance from 2021-22, though faculty were, as the task force focused on the Board, University administration and faculty’s roles and responsibilities.
SGA Vice President Liz Stoddard, a junior running for the presidency, said University officials see consulting students as a “check box,” sometimes seeking feedback from students on changes but not implementing their recommendations. She said students need to be treated as a “real partner” in decision-making because they support every aspect of the University, from creating community through organizations to working campus jobs and paying tuition.
Stoddard said a representative from the Board once spoke at an SGA meeting when she was a senator and told them GW is a “three-legged stool” made up of the Board, the administration and the faculty, and did not mention students as part of GW’s governance. She said that meeting showed her that administrators do not view students as valuable decision-making partners, despite students funding most of GW’s operations.
“None of those people would get a single cent in their pocket if the students weren’t here,” Stoddard said.
Stoddard said getting students more involved in the decision-making process starts with giving the SGA more “legitimacy” among administrators by partnering with other organizations that have the power to pressure officials and create change, like GW’s graduate student union and the Faculty Senate — the only governing body formally incorporated into the University’s shared governance framework. She said partnering with these bodies — both of which SGA leaders hosted members of at their meeting in late March — that have more overt power to pressure the administration rather than advocacy alone could also help the SGA accomplish its desired goals.
“I really honestly think that pushing those relationships and making that stuff happen is really the first step in the door of shared governance,” Stoddard said.
Alfred Lewis Jr., a junior transfer student running for president, said officials should not only consult students about decisions to cut campus operations or major changes at the University but also include them as voting members in the decision-making process itself. Lewis said his top priority in his presidential platform is to press officials to create a voting student seat on the Board of Trustees.
The Board swiftly rejected a 2023 SGA proposal that asked the Board to add the SGA president and vice president as full voting members, stating it would not consider student representation “at this time.” A spring 2024 SGA ballot referendum asked students whether they supported student representation on the Board, to which nearly 85 percent of students said they did.
Lewis said one rejection from the Board does not mean students should stop trying to become voting members, and the SGA too easily has given up the effort to get Board representation.
He said students pay tuition to the University, but are excluded from its decision-making processes like the February decision to sell the Virginia Science and Technology Campus to Amazon Data Services for $427 million — a move officials made without consulting the campus’ faculty or students. He said students, or at least SGA leaders, should have been informed about the sale prior and been able to ask officials about the implications on the University.
“The selling of the Virginia campus, they just raised tuition by 3 percent, where is the student input?” Lewis said. “Who was in the room with the Board of Trustees? Are they asking the opinions of these students?”
University spokesperson Julia Garbitt said the University values its communications with the SGA, evidenced by officials appearing at the Senate’s meetings and the president and vice president’s regular meetings with top officials, like University President Ellen Granberg and the provost.
“Hearing our student government’s needs, concerns and ideas remains a priority for the University,” Garbitt said in an email. “We look forward to continuing collaboration with SGA throughout the semester and in the next academic year.”
Garbitt said the Board of Trustees “welcomes feedback” from students and acknowledges the “important and unique” perspectives students provide. She said the Board has implemented student desires for more input by inviting the SGA president to serve as a non-voting observer and having student, faculty and staff representation on the Board’s task forces.
“While the Board is not considering student representation at this time, it looks forward to continuing ongoing conversations and collaborating with faculty, staff and students alike,” Garbitt said.
Amelia Nelson, Isaac Harte and Ryan Saenz contributed reporting.
