From Representation to Real Access: Redefining Graduate Governance at Georgetown

By Shelby Meek

To end the last semester of 2025, GradGov launched one of its highest-impact initiatives: the expansion of Senate Access. Originally, only the E-Board met with the university leadership to discuss student concerns. Kavin Sakthivel, President of GradGov and a graduate of the School of Continuing Studies’ 26, stated that this initiative was created from his experience as a senator, where he felt he had limited access to his dean. 

“As a result, I also did not feel like I had much power in that role. When I became president, I wanted to make sure senators during my term had the access, authority, and ownership they needed to do their jobs properly,” Sakthivel said. 

Sakthivel said he started working on this initiative over the summer of 2025 by reaching out to all the school’s deans, setting up meetings, and opening new lines of communication. The initiative of increased access brought about a cultural and structural change. The structural change was for the creation of direct access, while the cultural change reinforced the idea that senators are representatives of their constituents and must be able to speak directly with their students to make effective decisions. 

“Graduate education at Georgetown is heavily school-based, and many concerns cannot be resolved at the university level alone, which makes this approach especially important,” Sakthivel said. 

As a result, this plan arose through a shared desire among GradGov’s leadership team, wanting to guarantee that concerns from graduate students across programs are heard by their school’s administration. Kevin Reardon, GradGov’s advisor for Organizational Transparency and a graduate student from McCourt School of Public Policy’ 27, said that before this program was set up, multiple schools represented in GradGov lacked an adequate mechanism for the student body to convey their challenges and concerns to school leadership, leading to a major informational gap.

Now, this change will allow senators to bring forth issues at the school level, making graduate students also have a more direct role in shaping their academic environment. One of the first goals for this initiative is to have senators meet with their school deans twice per semester to elevate Georgetown’s graduate students’ concerns to school leadership. Reardon stated that the other two primary goals are to provide a mechanism for transparency by giving graduate students further insight into why their schools are making certain decisions and have durable networks of communication between students and school leadership. 

“This informational gap allowed for a systemic prohibition of communication, and we at GradGov saw our unique position to remedy this concern,” Reardon said. 

Reardon and Linda Uzoamaka Christopher, a graduate student of SFS’ 26, stated that this program will provide a greater level of transparency for GradGov’s senators who are looking to have a more in-depth look at the structure behind the decisions of university administration. 

Christopher said this initiative will empower senators to feel more engaged in their roles as advocates for their peers and create that direct access to school leadership, which “helps bridge gaps between students, their schools, and the broader university, which builds trust in student representation and the Graduate Student Government.”

“The school leadership teams we met were quick to explain their reasoning and provide insight into the multiple factors they had to weigh, which they used to make their decisions,” Reardon added. 

“It also allows representatives to gather feedback from their cohorts and communicate it through GradGov to the university, fostering a stronger sense of unity and reflecting Georgetown’s cura personalis — care for the individual and the whole community,” Christopher said. 

Grace Freeman, graduate student at McCourt School of Public Policy’ 27 and MPM Senator, believes that including representatives from all student governments would offer more comprehensive guidance, support, and a “360-degree view of the student experience.” Building the foundation of the program will help set up expectations, establish communication norms, and will make sure senators feel supported in their conversations with leadership. 

“Speaking with the dean is a way to test if our initiatives can be implemented, and push for them if so. Really, GradGov hinges on our leadership being receptive to our work,” Freeman said. 

This initiative can be strengthened through various tactics, such as periodic check-ins between student senators and the Graduate Student Government Executive, working as an effective channel. That will keep track of the feedback and suggestions each school has, making it easier to identify challenges that require university-wide advocacy. 

“These regular touchpoints would also improve accountability by encouraging senators to engage with their schools and come prepared with updates actively,” Christopher said.

These techniques bring in real-world problem-solving and empower students to be immersed in their communities as a whole. Arjith Saxena, a graduate student in SCS’27, said the initiative will let the graduate community know that their senators are there for them and willing to advocate for them. 

“This initiative also connects the school to seeking actual change to what students are facing in the current moment and not what the board deems to be issues for students,” Saxena said. 

GradGov senators and the school leadership teams combined together to help create this initiative and build on it. This highlights that positive vertical communication between the students and school administration at Georgetown is a vital part of ensuring a functional and representative academic environment. Graduate government should be a place to amplify students’ voices in numerous programs, strengthen engagement, and ensure that graduate student needs are met at Georgetown. 

“Graduate governance should not exist simply to exist. It should be something people take seriously, feel accountable to, and use to represent their peers,” Sakthivel concluded. If students have any feedback they want to share with their deans, feel free to reach out to your school-specific GradGov senator here.