Open Access Exodus: MSB Clubs Disaffiliate, Move to Pursue First-Year Recruitment

When Yugo Kuga (SFS ’26) first arrived at Georgetown University in Fall 2022, he had no experience in finance. 

Three years later, Kuga serves as the CEO of Zeeba Investment Group, a student-run international equities fund, and recently accepted a job as an investment banking analyst at Bank of America after graduation. 

Kuga said he wouldn’t have come into his interest in investing if he didn’t have the opportunity to join Zeeba during the fall semester of his first year.

“I’m an SFS kid — I had career interests beyond finance,” Kuga told The Hoya. 

However, Kuga said that one aspect of the joining process for clubs prevents first-year student involvement — the McDonough School of Business’s (MSB) 2023 open access policy. He said the policy requires MSB-funded clubs to train first-years in a general membership tier in the fall before they can become applied members in the spring, preventing students from having the same space to explore their interests.

Kuga said that the open access policy primarily benefits students who arrive at university with a long-standing interest in finance.

“Kids who can stick through the program are kids who are already dead set on pursuing a career in finance,” Kuga said. “It really disadvantages kids who are unsure of whether or not they want to pursue a career in finance, but still want that opportunity.”

The training as part of the open-access requirement aims to support programs in providing new students with the same training, resources and community as formalized members without the extensive written applications or rounds of interviews these clubs typically require.

The system seeks to mitigate the harmful effects of a highly competitive club environment on inclusivity and sense of belonging, particularly among first-generation and low-income students, LGBTQ+ students and students of color. MSB administrators have documented the consequences of such competition — like feelings of stereotype threat and imposter syndrome — in a series of surveys dating back to October 2018. 

The policy, however, has also placed new burdens on clubs themselves, forcing them to expand their reach under already strained circumstances. 

In the last several years, the recruitment timeline for professional investment banking has also accelerated dramatically; rather than occurring in the fall of junior year, many recruitment processes now take place in the spring of sophomore year or even earlier. Investment banking giants like JPMorganChase, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America have already opened applications for Summer 2026 internships. 

Critics of the open access’ general membership requirement argue it prevents first-years from becoming applied members in the fall, cutting an additional semester of potential training.

Janani Sundaram (MSB ’26) — the CEO of Georgetown University Student Investment Fund (GUSIF), which manages over $1 million from the university’s endowment and Alumni Association — said being able to train first-years in the fall semester without the burden of professional recruitment is formative to future success as an analyst.

“Investors learn a lot of the fundamentals without the pressure of having to recruit for our internships,” Sundaram told The Hoya. “There’s a reason why the GUSIF structure was created the way it was.”

“Completely removing one whole semester of the seven semesters you’re in GUSIF really alters your ability to understand how the different levels of the clubs all intersect, understand how to navigate people and understand the technical parts of things,” Sundaram added. 

Kuga said these limitations have also shaped the criteria of Zeeba’s hiring process, exacerbating the existing selectiveness inherent to a heavily business-focused applicant class. 

“We have to take students who are already a little more polished, who are already dead set on whether they’re pursuing a career in finance, and who have a basic understanding of how it works because there’s less time,” Kuga said.

Despite these recruitment difficulties, both GUSIF and Zeeba spent four hiring cycles under the open access program, from Fall 2023 to Spring 2025. In early September, however, GUSIF disaffiliated from the MSB, conceding all benefits afforded to university-recognized clubs. Zeeba quickly followed suit. 

In exchange for their ability to reserve rooms, university funding and the right to participate in university events and advertisements, the groups gained one primary benefit — the ability to recruit first years as applied members in the fall.

A university spokesperson said clubs recognized by the MSB must comply with membership policy.

“Georgetown McDonough offers a dynamic and diverse array of undergraduate student organizations designed to enhance the academic, professional, and social experiences of business students and those interested in business,” the spokesperson wrote to The Hoya.

The First-Year Frenzy

Two years of the open access policy — and the resulting loss of training time — have created structural challenges for club leadership.

Sundaram said GUSIF’s move to disaffiliate itself from the university was driven by evolving gaps in the confidence and professional progression of analysts trained under the open access policy. 

“Now that the current junior class was the first class to see open access, we can see a little bit of a delay in that sort of development,” Sundaram said. “They’re all incredible investors, incredible analysts, but we are able to see that there is that one semester’s worth of lag.”

 “Freshmen are kind of the crux of the organization because they are analysts, and they want these big leadership positions, and they keep moving up, up, up,” Sundaram added.

Sundaram said delaying entry for potential members by a year makes it difficult for clubs to build up institutional infrastructure and knowledge. 

“When an organization is very sophomore-heavy, they lose focus because they’re worried about recruiting and all sorts of other things, which is totally fair, but that’s why we’ve been seeing that sort of lag,” Sundaram said.

Sundaram said GUSIF’s decision to disaffiliate reflected organization-specific challenges and was not intended to motivate other groups to follow suit.

“I’ve had a lot of different clubs reach out to me and ask me about our thought process behind it,” Sundaram said. “I definitely tried not to sway any club in any way. I didn’t even think about what other clubs would do.”

“I was just thinking about GUSIF, and I only had GUSIF in mind when I made a decision because we are unique in terms of our fiduciary responsibility compared to other clubs,” Sundaram added. 

GUSIF’s actions, however, pushed Zeeba to make a similar decision. Five days after GUSIF disaffiliated MSB, Zeeba also left the MSB.

The club did not have existing plans to disaffiliate. Instead, Kuga said, the decision was prompted by a need to level the playing field. 

“As a club, we cannot run open access if GUSIF is taking freshmen because we are direct competitors,” Kuga said. “We teach over 150 kids a semester — imagine if, in the middle of the open access program, 30 of them leave because they get into GUSIF.” 

“Even if you’re more interested in Zeeba, it would be a no-brainer to apply for GUSIF because you’d get a semester more experience,” Kuga added. 

Despite the decision’s risks, Kuga said Zeeba stands to gain more than it lost by disaffiliating. 

“Ultimately, whatever MSB was providing us,” Kuga said, “It’s not enough to incentivize us to pursue open access and not take any freshmen in the fall.”

GUSIF and Zeeba are not the first clubs to disaffiliate. In Fall 2024, the Hilltop Microfinance Initiative (HMFI), a non-profit that provides financial coaching and microloans to small businesses, disaffiliated, citing concerns about sharing sensitive client information with general members. 

Anvitha Reddy (SFS ’26), HMFI’s CEO, said general membership requires clubs to extend resources to prospective members, creating a dilemma for club leadership as to the value of expending resources on people who may not apply at all later on. 

“There’s very little incentive to want to stay in a structure where you’re spending more time, spending more energy, and then ultimately not necessarily getting more dedicated or more interested applicants,” Reddy told The Hoya.

Toni Marz (MSB ’26), president of the McDonough School of Business Student Advisory Board (MSAB), which liaises between MSB-affiliated clubs and university administration, has, however, been a proponent of the policy.

Full disclosure: Toni Marz formerly served as a Senior Social Media Editor for The Hoya.

Marz said the policy ensures all undergraduate students can meaningfully participate in business clubs regardless of background, experience or class year.

“Instead of students feeling pressured to apply to the ‘most selective’ groups just for prestige, they are able to explore a variety of organizations and identify which align with their genuine interests,” Marz wrote to The Hoya. “General membership gives students the chance to demonstrate commitment and enthusiasm over time, rather than relying solely on a one-time application.”

Leo Ledlow (CAS ’27) — the former chief human resources officer for Hoyalytics, a data analytics club that trains about 300 general members every year — said the open access policy has successfully helped to combat the insulation of competitive business clubs.

“Having a continuous stream of fresh faces and new ideas is really essential to keeping a club very socially healthy and building new networks on campus,” Ledlow told The Hoya.

Varied Administrative Responses

Both club leaders say the disaffiliation process was far from cut and dry. 

Sundaram, who began her year-long term as CEO in December 2024, said GUSIF had been considering disaffiliation since well before the Fall 2025 hiring cycle.

“I can’t even count the number of meetings we’ve had at the dean’s office,” she said. “It started way before my board term.”

The dean’s office did not respond to repeated requests for comment. 

A university spokesperson said that the dean’s office is committed to an ethos of equality.

“Student organizations are subject to the student organizations standards, including those around open membership,” the spokesperson wrote to The Hoya. “Because of the University’s commitment to inclusion, membership in a McDonough undergraduate student organization must be nondiscriminatory.”

In a now-deleted Instagram post from Aug. 28, the same day as the MSB’s Back to Business club fair, GUSIF advertised that both first-years and sophomores would be eligible to apply to the group. While the Instagram post explicitly stated that GUSIF would accept first-year applications, Sundaram said they weren’t fully committed to the change.

“At the beginning of the semester, we were playing with the idea,” Sundaram said. 

Sundaram said that GUSIF, having built a long-term relationship with the dean’s office in discussions regarding open access, had hoped to reach a compromise during these talks to either change the policy or obtain an exemption. 

“We weren’t flat out being like, ‘Hey, we can take freshmen,’ but we also weren’t shutting people down,” Sundaram said. “We were definitely in contact with the dean’s office and had multiple meetings just within those two weeks.” 

“We honestly really enjoyed our open access program,” Sundaram added. “We had absolutely no problem in terms of the open access part of things, but we also wanted the ability to take freshmen.” 

In a Sept. 10 information session for prospective applied members in Lohrfink Auditorium, GUSIF officially announced it would accept first-years as applied members. The organization formally and immediately disaffiliated after the meeting. 

Zeeba made a similar announcement in a Sept. 14 Instagram post; however, instead of two weeks, Zeeba had less than 24 hours to disaffiliate. 

Kuga said the club believed, based on GUSIF’s experience, that the solicitation of first-year analyst applicants would not constitute a violation of MSB club policies. 

“My impression was that advertising is fine,” Kuga said. “The violation comes when you start taking those freshmen, when we start accepting applications.”

Kuga said he did not notify the dean’s office of Zeeba’s announcement before posting, saying the club decided over the weekend.

In a Sept. 15 email exchange obtained and reviewed by The Hoya, Marz informed Kuga the morning of Monday, Sept. 15, that the advertisement had cost the group their university benefits.

“I saw on Instagram that Zeeba has chosen to accept freshmen applications this semester, meaning that they are no longer a part of MSAB,” Marz wrote.

Kuga then clarified his distinction between advertising first-year analyst applications and accepting first-years as analysts, offering to remove the Instagram post. 

In a 9:52 a.m. email on Sept. 15, Justin Smith, MSB associate dean of strategic initiatives, wrote to Kuga mandating that Zeeba’s board must finalize the club’s affiliation by the afternoon of Sept. 15. 

“Before 2 p.m. today, you will need to make a decision: Continue as a member of MSAB, in compliance with all university/school policies or disaffiliate, in which case your access-to-benefits (space/reservations/email) will cease immediately,” Smith wrote in the email. “If I don’t hear back from you before 2pm, I will make a preliminary decision for you based upon what I know.” 

Kuga met with Marz that afternoon, and Zeeba formally and voluntarily disaffiliated from MSAB before 5 p.m. Sept. 15. 

Smith said, in the same email exchange with Kuga regarding the difference between Zeeba and GUSIF’s exits from MSAB, that the decision was rooted in “maintaining the trust” that comes with being a member of MSAB. 

“At Georgetown, and especially within the Jesuit tradition, we hold ourselves to values of integrity, accountability and cura personalis,” Smith said. “That means we do not seek advantage at the expense of fairness, nor do we excuse one misstep by pointing to another.”

Smith did not respond to repeated requests for comment. 

Sundaram said GUSIF was in consistent contact with MSB administrators about their decision, being intentional not to undermine policy. 

“We wanted to make sure we didn’t do anything under the table,” Sundaram said. “That’s why we left the day we had our first info session to show the MSB that we’re not trying to undermine them. We do want to play by the book.”

GUSA Intervention

Historically, MSAB has been funded solely through donations made to the MSB undergraduate program and the MSB dean’s office rather than the student activity funds that support other advisory boards. 

In 2024, however, the dean’s office announced that they would be shifting their funding priorities towards retreats aimed exclusively at MSB students, causing GUSA’s Finance and Appropriations (FinApp) Committee, a Senate committee responsible for managing and allocating the university’s student activities fee to student organizations, to grant funding to MSAB for the first time — a sum of $3,968.

FinApp Chair Han Li (CAS ’27) said the allocation prompted new questions about the relationship between GUSA and MSAB, and FinApp voted unanimously to establish the MSAB Investigative Subcommittee on Sept. 21.

“If you want our money, you have to play by our rules,” Li told The Hoya. 

“For us, this poses the question of how we give the money back to students in the most effective way,” he said. “That’s what the MSAB problem is. Do we give them support? How much support do we give them? How do we do that in the best way possible, that aligns with our mission of supporting student life?”

The university has its own access to benefits policy for Center for Student Engagement (CSE) clubs, which also requires open membership, but notably allows organizations to seek exemptions from a student advisory board to assess applicants based on relevant criteria such as musical talent, public speaking skills or athletic abilities. Although housed under the MSB, MSAB is affiliated with the CSE. 

James Beit (MSB ’26), the chair of the subcommittee, said that the group will also explore potential paths for disaffiliated business clubs within this structure, including creating their own CSE student advisory board or approaching an existing board, like the Student Activities Commission (SAC), to request an open membership exemption.

“Georgetown has never sent so many people into so many high-level roles, basically in its history, until now, because of the actions and the alumni networks of these clubs,” Beit told The Hoya. “It’s having such a great impact on the success of graduates.”

“I feel like we have to face facts here, and say that this deserves an exemption,” he added. 

Vincent Barahona (MSB ’27), who served as the development chair of the MSAB for the 2024-25 school year and has spoken out against MSAB since, said an exemption system would support much-needed distinctions.

“You just have to differentiate,” Barahona told The Hoya. “Simply put, there are two kinds of clubs in the MSB and under the MSAB system. There’s the ones that train, and then there are the ones that do the work.”

“I am not anti-open access. I think open access is what makes Georgetown clubs, at their best, special. But do I think that all Georgetown clubs are the same and fit the same mold? No. I think that there are certain clubs that benefit from open access, and then there are certain clubs whose missions are fundamentally antithetical to it and the work that they do is degraded,” he added. 

On Sept. 26, MSAB will host a Leaders Lunch for all club leadership to listen to feedback on how the board can best support the clubs.

Zeeba is considering an optional open access program that would run concurrently with freshman applied membership. Sundaram said GUSIF, which will remain closely linked to the university due to the nature of its investments, hopes to reach a similar compromise with MSB administration. 

“We’re hoping that at some point, in future semesters, these conversations continue where we can bring back open access and be able to take freshmen,” Sundaram said. “This is not the end of the journey.”