| Formation: | 1984 |
| Leader Title: | President |
| Leader Name: | Jaden Cobb (CAS '25) |
| Leader Title2: | Vice President |
| Leader Name2: | Sanaa Mehta (SFS '25) |
| Leader Title3: | Speaker of the Senate |
| Leader Name3: | Meriam Ahmad (SFS '26) |
| Leader Title4: | Vice Speaker of the Senate |
| Leader Name4: | Rhea Iyer (CAS '26) |
| Website: | gustudentassociation.com |
| Georgetown University Student Association | |
| Abbreviation: | GUSA |
| Membership: | 6,675 undergraduate students |
The Georgetown University Student Association (GUSA) is the undergraduate student government of Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. The GUSA bylaws state that the organization's mission is "to (i) empower Hoyas by giving them control over resources, (ii) improve the student quality of life, (iii) safeguard Hoya rights, (iv) involve Hoyas in the governance of the University, and (v) ensure that the University conducts itself in an ethical and responsible manner."[1]
The Executive Branch is made up of a President and Vice President, elected by the undergraduate student body each November to lead for the following calendar year, as well as a staff whose size and structure is largely up to the discretion of the President and Vice President.[2] Since 2023, the executive staff has been restructured and expanded to address many issues raised by members of the undergraduate student body. Membership on cabinet staff, executive staff, and general staff positions is application-based and open to all undergraduate students.[3] The President and Vice President also appoint student representatives to a variety of external boards and committees, and all executive staff positions and external board appointments are subject to review and confirmation by the Senate.[4]
| 2024 | Jaden Cobb | Sanaa Mehta | |
| 2023 | Camber Vincent | Alyssa Hirai | |
| 2022* | Kole Wolfe | Zeke Ume-Ukeje | |
| 2021-2022 | Nile Blass | Nicole Sanchez | |
| 2020-2021 | Nicolo Ferretti | Bryce Badger | |
| 2019-2020 | Norman Francis Jr. | Aleida Olvera | |
| 2018-2019 | Juan Martinez | Kenna Chick | |
| 2017-2018 | Kamar Mack | Jessica Andino | |
| 2016-2017 | Enushe Khan | Chris Fisk | |
| 2015-2016 | Joe Luther | Connor Rohan |
The Legislative Branch is made up of a 29-person Senate which can amend the GUSA bylaws, confirm executive and judicial appointments, and engage in advocacy through mechanisms that include resolutions and ad hoc committees. The Senate is led by a Speaker and Vice Speaker during the academic year and over the summer. The Senate also controls the process by which more than $1 million is allocated to student organizations. The process is overseen by the Senate's Finance and Appropriations Committee, which allocates the sum total funds generated by the Student Activities Fee ($164 per student in 2018[5]) each year to five club advisory boards, the Lecture Fund, the Georgetown Programming Board, and other groups.
| 19th Senate Nov. Session(Nov 2023 - Apr 2024) | Megan Skinner | Dylan Davis | |
| 18th Senate Apr. Session(Apr 2023 - Nov 2023) | Manahal Fazal | Joshua Bernard-PearlMegan Skinner | |
| 18th Senate Nov. Session(Nov 2022 - Apr 2023) | Manahal Fazal | Alicia Gopal | |
| 17th Senate Apr. Session(Apr 2022 - Nov 2023) | Camber Vincent | Spencer Woodall | |
| 17th Senate Nov. Session(Nov 2021 - Apr 2022) | Leo Rassieur | Rowlie Flores |
The Judicial Branch is made up of a 3-person Constitutional Council, which oversees all internal GUSA disputes and is charged with the stewardship of the GUSA Constitution.
Student government has been involved throughout its history in the establishment, expansion, and improvement of a plethora of student resources and services. This legacy includes the Georgetown University Transportation Shuttles (GUTS) system, which was founded in 1974 and expanded several times since then through the work of student government, and campus dining, whose improvement has been a focus of student government for decades. Other initiatives include:
Perhaps the most famous service established by student government is Students of Georgetown, Inc., also known as "The Corp", which was founded by SG President Roger Cochetti and Vice President Nancy Kent in October 1971. Until the early 1990s, the board of The Corp remained under the control of student government and the activities of the two organizations were closely linked.[11]
In addition to improving student resources and services, student government at Georgetown has long played a central role in the allocation of resources to student activities. This has been the case since at least the 1970s, but a notable change occurred in 2001 when a GUSA-led effort successfully established a "Student Activities Fee" to be collected from all students as part of undergraduate tuition, and disbursed to all student organizations by GUSA itself. Today, GUSA allocates more than $1 million per year to eight advisory boards, which in turn allocate their funds to over 300 student organizations.[12]
Student government has traditionally remained focused on student life, but at times the organization has also contributed its voice to political debates on campus and around the country. In 1997, for example, GUSA vocally supported the controversial addition of crucifixes to university classrooms.[13] And in 2011, GUSA President Mike Meaney organized a group letter from more than 100 student body presidents to President Barack Obama and Speaker of the House John Boehner urging a bipartisan compromise on the national debt ceiling.[14]
The earliest form of student government at Georgetown was the Georgetown University Athletic Association, which formed in 1874 in order to coordinate athletics amongst the students of Georgetown College. The Athletic Association was relatively informal in its structure and duties until 1889, when students drafted a constitution and began annual elections. Its leadership consisted of three elected students –– the Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer –– as well as the managers of each athletic team and a Jesuit advisor who held the symbolic title of "President". That symbolism was soon relinquished, however, and by 1900 the student leader of the Athletic Association was called its President. The Association's duties were almost entirely athletic in nature; it coordinated schedules for athletic practices and games, managed the sharing of athletic equipment, and raised funds in order to support activities related to athletics and school spirit.[15]
The Athletic Association was also called "The Yard" interchangeably, in likely reference to the College Yard in which athletic games were played. Its annual leaders were thus referred to as the Yard President, Yard Secretary, and Yard Treasurer.
In 1920, a College Student Council was formed with representatives from each class year. The Athletic Association continued to exist for the limited purpose of coordinating athletics, but the College Student Council supplanted it as the most important and authoritative elected body of the College and thus assumed the title "The Yard". Unlike the Athletic Association, the Student Council's duties were wide-ranging, including advocacy for student interests and the coordination of social life in the College. Students in the College continued to elect three executives each year –– the Yard President, Yard Secretary, and Yard Treasurer –– who oversaw both the old Athletic Association and the new College Student Council.
In 1940, the students of Georgetown College approved a new constitution for the College Student Council which included representation for the College's most significant student organizations alongside the representatives of each class. Over the next thirty years, the organizations represented on the Council would include the Georgetown College Journal, the Collegiate Club, the Glee Club, The Hoya, the International Relations Club, Mask and Bauble, the Philodemic Society, the Sodality, the Washington Club, and WGTB Radio.[16]
Around the same time that the College Student Council was formed in 1920, the students of the newly-established School of Foreign Service (SFS) founded an SFS Student Council. Like its original College counterpart, the SFS Student Council included representatives from each class year as well as the whole school and took on a variety of responsibilities including advocacy and social life. When the School of Languages and Linguistics was founded in 1949 and the School of Business in 1957, their student bodies were incorporated into the SFS Student Council's representative infrastructure. By the early 1960s, the group was called the "East Campus Student Council" or "Walsh Area Student Council" to reflect the fact that its constituency now included three undergraduate schools but that all three schools were located on Georgetown's "East Campus" (the block between 35th and 36th Streets NW, on which the Walsh Building stands).
At some point in the 1940s or 50s, the students of the Nursing School founded the Nursing School Student Council, which, like its SFS counterpart, included class representatives and school-wide elected officers but not representatives of student organizations. The first women to hold elected office in student government at Georgetown did so on the Nursing School Student Council, since the school was originally open only to women.
Administrative collaboration and social interaction between Georgetown's five separate undergraduate schools began to increase in the 1950s and 60s, and by the mid-60s there was an unprecedented sense of shared community amongst students of the five schools. Students also began to recognize the practical benefits of university-wide collaboration on the issues that affected students in all schools equally. As a result, several attempts were made throughout the 1960s to unify the three disparate student councils. Unification efforts were finally successful in March 1968, when a referendum passed among the constituencies of all three student councils. In December 1968, students from all schools elected 40 delegates to a constitutional convention, which was charged with drafting a structure for the new, unified student government. The convention released its plans within a few months, and the first university-wide student government election was held in May 1969.[17]
Simply called the Student Government (SG), the new unified institution included a President and Vice President elected by the entire student body, and a Senate with 5 students elected from each school and 5 from each class (40 in total).
In 1984, students replaced the SG with the Georgetown University Student Association (GUSA), a new institution that over time came to be loosely based on the tripartite structure of the federal government of the United States. GUSA's executive branch included a President and Vice President, elected annually by the student body. Its legislative branch consisted of a 16-person Assembly, with 4 representatives from each class year––thus eliminating the last vestiges of differentiated representation for the five schools. After 1990, GUSA also had a judicial branch, consisting of a 3-person Constitutional Council empowered to resolve constitutional disputes within the student government.
The GUSA Constitution has been amended three times:
Many notable individuals in business, politics, religion, and the arts began their careers in Georgetown's student government, including:
| Leader Title: | President |
| Leader Name: | Nagla Abdelhady (SFS '25) |
| Leader Title2: | Vice President |
| Leader Name2: | Ahmed Noeman (SFS '27) |
| Leader Title3: | Chief of Staff |
| Leader Name3: | Sama Alissa (SFS '27) |
| Leader Title4: | Public Relations Officer |
| Leader Name4: | Haya Al-Mannai (SFS '27) |
| Georgetown University in Qatar-Student Government Association | |
| Abbreviation: | GU-Q SGA |
The Georgetown University in Qatar-Student Government Association (GU-Q SGA) is an annually elected, student-run governance association that works to represent the student body of Georgetown University in Qatar and liaise with university administrators. In addition, The President of SGA chairs the Student Liaison Commission (SLC), and The Vice President chairs the Student Activities Commission (SAC).[21] The SGA has 11 members, replaced annually. An executive group made up of the President, the Vice President, and the Public Relations Officer guide and preside over the functions of the SGA. A core group of 8 members represents the interests of the student body, with two representatives from each undergraduate class. The SGA meets on a weekly basis and discusses the issues or concerns raised by the student body. The President is also a member of the Dean's subcommittees for various issues such as the Dean's subcommittee for sustainability.The introduction of the Red Square, a replica of the famous Red Square in Georgetown University's main campus in Washington D.C., was a result of an initiative of the SGA led by President Malak Elmoh (SFS-Q '21).[22]
Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani (SFS-Q '09), the first President of the SGA was elected in 2006. The official title of the President was changed to Student Body President and Head of SGA, as per the Fourth Amendment to the GU-Q SGA Constitution which was signed and approved by President Kurian in April 5,2023.
The former Presidents of the Student Government Association include,
| Year | Name | |
|---|---|---|
| 2006-2007 | Mohammed bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani | |
| 2007-2008 | Hanouf Al Buainain | |
| 2008-2009 | Asma Al Addawi | |
| 2009-2010 | Hadi Darwishi | |
| 2010-2011 | Zainab El Fil | |
| 2011-2013 | William YangUn Cha | |
| 2013-2014 | Mohamed Sirelkhatim | |
| 2014-2015 | Yoonsuk Choi | |
| 2015-2016 | Abdullah Ahmad | |
| 2016-2017 | Dialla Jandali | |
| 2017-2018 | Noor Sheikh | |
| 2018-2019 | Malak Elmoh | |
| 2019-2020 | Abdullah Al-Malki | |
| 2020-2021 | Mariam Kvaratskhelia | |
| 2021-2022 | Maryam Al-Khater | |
| 2022-2023 | Benjamin Kurian |
| Year | Name | |
|---|---|---|
| 2022-2023 | Benjamin Kurian | |
| May 2023-December 2023 | Mohammed Jaski | |
| January 2024-May 2024 | Maryam Al-Ansari | |
| 2024-Present | Nagla Abdelhady |
The Senate of GU-Q SGA is made up of two class representatives from each batch at GU-Q. They work alongside the SGA President and the executive board to accomplish and meet the student needs. Apart from representing students within GUQ, the SGA also represents them in the Education City Student Government Association(ECSGA),an initiative started by President Hadi Darvishi in 2009 combining the Student Governments of various universities in Education City. In 2022, under the leadership of President Kurian, GU-Q SGA hosted a meeting of the ECSGA at Georgetown University in Qatar. This was the first meeting of ECSGA after four years. GU-Q SGA also holds strong connections with Georgetown University Student Association(GUSA) and Georgetown University Graduate Student Government (GradGov),as part of the ‘One Georgetown’ initiative by President Kurian. [23]
In 2024, under the leadership of President Abdelhady (then Chief of Staff), GU-Q SGA established an Academic Council with cooperation from their counterparts in Washington D.C.
President Kvaratskhelia was selected as the student speaker for the Georgetown University MSFS Commencement exercises in 2024.
| Title | Name | |
|---|---|---|
| Class Representative of 2023 | Rodolfo Muños CárdenasMuhammad Carter | |
| Class Representative of 2024 | Juan Carlo Landayan Ilgar Gapagov | |
| Class Representative of 2025 | Gaebriel OlsenAamna Asim | |
| Class Representative of 2026 | Kim ChenMaryam Al-Ansari |
| Title | Name | |
|---|---|---|
| Class Representative of 2024 | Juan Carlo Landayan Noha Alhamid | |
| Class Representative of 2025 | Alexander SandnerMohammad Hannon | |
| Class Representative of 2026 | Kayan Al-MousawiTashafee Masoodi | |
| Class Representative of 2027 | Hassan AminHaya Al-Mannai |