The Georgetown University Student Association (GUSA), Georgetown’s student government, passed several bills during their summer session aimed at improving student life and easing the transition back to campus for the Fall 2025 semester.
During its June summer meeting, the GUSA Senate passed an amendment to GUSA bylaws, requiring every bill or proposed resolution to include a plan of legislation, outlining how the policy could be carried out. The senate also unanimously passed a resolution to establish an endowed fund for student life, which would provide funds for student events, and started working to permit seniors who live off campus to access the newly renovated lobby of Byrnes Hall with their GOCards.
Saahil Rao (SFS ’27), the speaker of the senate, said the student life fund would help subsidize high-cost events by working with the Center for Student Engagement and reducing contributions from the Student Activities Fund (SAF), GUSA’s annual budget that funds student activities.
“We thought it was really important to look big picture and think, ‘How can we make more money available to student life?’” Rao told The Hoya. “We’re centering on this idea to have donors fund a couple of very high-burden events, which the SAF currently pays for, so that hopefully the burden could be moved off the SAF — and now all of a sudden, you have a couple hundred thousand dollars more for every single club to potentially access.”
Rao introduced the resolution alongside five other senators.
Zadie Weaver (CAS ’28), the senate’s vice speaker, said she introduced a bill in June to increase transparency surrounding the costs of hiring Georgetown University Police Department (GUPD) officers for certain club events.
“One bill that I introduced to the Senate was a GUPD bill, that attempts to set up more clear criteria for which club events GUPD needs to staff, as well as seeking other possible options for security,” Weaver wrote to The Hoya. “Right now, the hourly cost of GUPD is around $70/hr, and the guidelines for when GUPD is necessary are vague.”
GUPD presence is typically required for events in large venues, such as Gaston Hall, events featuring provocative speakers or subjects or events that involve alcohol, amplified sound or cash, according to the department’s webpage. The current hourly rate for GUPD event security services is $68.25 per officer, with a general requirement of one officer per 75 participants.
Rao said he hopes GUSA continues to pursue transparency surrounding GUPD security costs this fall.
“GUPD costs are extremely prohibitive,” Rao said. “But we’re hoping to have more conversations with them throughout the semester, and hopefully even create a slightly more independent process for determining security requirements, because we really think that would save a lot of money for clubs.”
Weaver, who introduced the bill ensuring access to Byrnes Hall for off-campus undergraduates, said she wanted to make the transition back to the school year easier with the legislation.
“That may seem small, but I think it’s important that GUSA pays attention to changes made over the summer so that we don’t have to resolve the summer changes administration makes in the first few weeks of school,” Weaver wrote.
The university has not changed policy, though Rao said GUSA would continue advocating for the issue.
Weaver and Rao also co-sponsored the bill requiring a plan of action on all legislation, alongside Asha Gudipaty (CAS ’27), vice chair of the senate’s Policy and Advocacy Committee (PAC), which determines whether to send legislation before the full senate.
In addition to the legislation, GUSA president Ethan Henshaw (CAS ’26) said he met with interim university President Robert M. Groves for the first time over the summer to discuss investment policies.
“I discussed investment policies and asked if the university could commit to transparently disclosing how the socially responsible investment policy works in practice, what types of companies fall under their ban on weapons manufacturers, and how that policy applies to mutual funds,” Henshaw wrote to The Hoya.
In April, Georgetown students endorsed a GUSA referendum calling on the university to divest from Israeli institutions in response to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, citing the university’s investments in companies with ties to the Israeli government and arms manufacturers. Groves immediately declined to implement the student referendum, citing academic freedom and the university’s responsibility to “deepen engagement and foster dialogue between scholars and societies.”
Henshaw added that he advocated for admission reform and greater financial aid during a June meeting of the Board of Directors, criticizing the university’s continued use of legacy admissions. The Hoya reported in April that legacy applicants were nearly three times more likely to receive an admissions offer.
Henshaw said his work over the summer focused on improving the quality of life for current and future students.
“Admissions and financial aid are really important to me, even if these reforms will not particularly affect students who are on campus now,” Henshaw wrote. “It matters a lot that Georgetown is a place accessible to everyone from all backgrounds.”