The Georgetown University Student Association (GUSA) executive and four first-year senators spoke to students about the Jaden Cobb (CAS ’25)-Sanaa Mehta (SFS ’25) administration’s goals and recent actions and responded to an audience of primarily first-year students’ concerns regarding campus issues at a Feb 28. town hall. 

At the town hall, which took place around one month into GUSA president Cobb and vice president Mehta’s term, Cobb spoke about the administration’s achievements, including extending Georgetown University Transportation System (GUTS) bus hours and fixing dorm sanitation issues. Cobb and Mehta also noted their efforts to conduct first-year dorm “raids,” an event in which first-year senators tabled in the lobby of each first-year dorm, to include first-year students’ opinions in GUSA decision-making, begin discussions about a living-learning community (LLC) for LGBTQ+ students, expand flex dollars’ utility and increase dining options. 

GUSA chief of staff Pratik Jacob (CAS ’25), said that although many students do not know how GUSA operates, the student association plays an important role in improving campus functions and facilities on behalf of the students. 

“The university is basically a mini city, there’s health care, there’s transportation, there’s literally everything,” Jacob said at the town hall. “So we’re always advocating on behalf of the student body to administrators, trying to get new policies and projects and just better things for students.” 

Cobb addressed widespread student concerns about the shorter winter break in the upcoming school year, saying there was nothing GUSA could do to lengthen the upcoming break, but adding that they are working with university administration to prevent the shortened break in the future.

“Unfortunately, the university sets the calendar for the whole year five years in advance,” Cobb said. “So, unfortunately, there isn’t anything we can do this year, but we are working on making sure that this doesn’t happen in the future. To our knowledge, as of now, they’ve already started 2027 and 2028, and those schedules are set to be back to normal.”

In response to student concerns regarding the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance, standards set to ensure the accessibility of public facilities to people with disabilities, of the detour to Darnall Hall due to the ongoing construction of the Henle Village residential complex, which is expected to finish in August 2025, first-year senator Sahil Sud (SFS ’27) said that the issue should be fixed by mid-March, despite administrative pushback.

“Unfortunately, that’s probably going to get pushed back, knowing Georgetown, but we’re trying our best to improve school infrastructure and make it more accessible overall on campus,” Sud said. “We’re trying to implement these policies. Admin is going to resist it, but we try our best.”

Students also voiced concerns about a lack of staplers near printers around campus. Cobb, who works at the McDonough School of Business (MSB) Tech Center, said that he has pointed out the presence of staplers in the MSB as an example of how staplers should be available campus-wide.

“I work in the Tech Center in the MSB and there are staplers right on top of their printers, everywhere,” Cobb said. “So I sent them that. I was like ‘If my job has these at the Tech Center, y’all should be able to have them too.’”

Responding to student feedback regarding the poor quality and limited options of menstrual products in campus bathrooms, Cobb said his administration aims to make these products available in bathrooms for both genders.

“The goal is to have menstrual products in all bathrooms, not just women’s restrooms, because there are people who identify as male who go through certain cycles, so we want to make sure that we are providing for that,”  Cobb said.

A majority of students in attendance were first-year students who received “What’s a Hoya” points, housing points that help them get higher positioning in the housing selection process, for attending. Several of these students expressed their difficulties with the housing program, as the requirements coincide with many students’ midterm exams. 

Cobb said he planned to take steps to reduce these challenges next year, adding that he hopes to ensure next year’s iteration of the program goes more smoothly.

“The plan is to get started on it before my term is over, just to kind of help the next president so that when they come in January, they can just knock it out,” Cobb said. “We’re going to try and talk about it at NSO and things of that nature to make sure that incoming freshmen know about ‘What’s a Hoya.’”

Cobb encouraged students to join GUSA if they are interested in enacting change around campus, saying his administration has reduced barriers for interested students by eliminating the requirement of a written application in favor of a quicker, ten-minute interview with an administration team member.

“This year, my administration, we don’t do applications,” Cobb said. “We’re firm believers that if you want to help the student body, you should be able to. We’re trying to get rid of those bureaucratic systems that don’t allow students to do that.”