Student organizations will no longer have to pay the Georgetown University Police Department (GUPD) for security at large events under a new Spring 2026 pilot program, the Georgetown student government will announce Dec. 5.
The university currently requires GUPD presence for events in large venues, such as Gaston Hall, events featuring provocative speakers or subjects or events that involve alcohol, amplified sound or cash intake, according to the department webpage. Student organizations must pay an hourly rate — $68.25 per GUPD officer — at events they organize, with a general requirement of one officer per 75 participants.
Under the pilot program, student organizations that have access to university benefits will not be required to pay the hourly wage, though they still must submit GUPD security requests.
The Georgetown University Student Association (GUSA), Georgetown’s student government, will announce the change in its biweekly newsletter, saying the program is a collaboration between GUSA and GUPD.
“The Georgetown University Police Department (GUPD) and GUSA are excited to announce a pilot program waiving event security fees for student organizations with access to benefits during the Spring 2026 semester,” GUSA wrote in the newsletter.
Ignacio Loaiza Sandoval (CAS ʼ28), GUSA’s director of labor and financial accessibility, said he hopes the pilot program will pave the way for a permanent program.
“I’m hoping we see student groups take advantage of this next semester and show what they’re able to do when this barrier is removed,” Loaiza Sandoval told The Hoya. “Obviously, we have no indication of how permanent this change will be, but I’m hoping this is a precedent that we could set and keep moving forward.”
Student leaders have repeatedly criticized the security fee, citing burdens to clubs, which have to pay for security through their university-allocated budget or outside fundraising. In September, the GUSA Senate passed a bill asking GUPD to meet with senators and publicly clarify its guidelines on what events require police presence.
Fiona Naughton (SFS ʼ27), a member of the student labor group Georgetown Coalition for Workers’ Rights (GCWR), said GCWR spent a significant amount of their budget on GUPD officers at a workers solidarity concert this semester.
“We had a solidarity concert in September, and we had to submit a police request form and set aside a significant portion of our budget — almost a quarter of our budget — to pay for the police there, and they didn’t do anything,” Naughton told The Hoya. “They literally just sat in their car. And it just felt like such a futile thing to have to do because it required so much advance notice.”
Roan Bedoian (CAS ʼ28), the speakers director for Georgetown University College Democrats and GUSA’s vice chair of the Policy and Advocacy Committee (PAC), said waiving security fees will strengthen student life across campus.
“I think it’s just better for club life, for students to be able to put the money that is in our student activity fee towards the actual activities themselves,” Bedoian told The Hoya. “So my hope is that it’s a successful pilot program and that university makes it permanent, expands it in any ways that may be necessary and that it’s something that improves the quality of student life on campus across the board.”
Naughton said requiring GUPD officers at student events helps normalize police supervision on campus.
“I think it’s worth every student kind of considering what Georgetown gets out of stationing police at regular student activities,” Naughton said. “When there are police outside of comedy events or at student events, it normalizes police presence at completely peaceful protests, and it creates a kind of normalization of police stations outside of just normal activities of student life.”
Loaiza Sandoval said the administration will evaluate the budgetary impact of the program before deciding on a permanent approach.
“So from our angle, I think the reason why this is a pilot is because they obviously want to see what the fiscal impact will be and how it will balance out within their budget,” Loaiza Sandoval said. “So I’m really hoping that we can show them that all the bureaucracy before was very silly, and that money was moving around in a very roundabout way, and that we get to keep this and institutionalize this.”
