The Student Association hopes to gain traction on a fight they’ve lost before – but this time, there’s real need and real promise.

SA senators are debating a bill that would charge a five-student committee with weighing the costs and benefits of adding a voting student representative to the Board of Trustees.

As students, we should all fervently support this renewed call to hold our leaders accountable. And in light of the recent embarrassments at the hands of administrators – like the need-blind scandal and the firing of the business school dean – the SA can make a good case for why we need a student voice on the board now.

The real business of the board happens behind closed doors in executive sessions, not in the public meeting during which the SA president is allowed to speak. Having a tuition-paying student in closed-door trustee meetings to speak out against a lack of honesty would be essential in preventing future lies.

The University won’t move forward as an institution when administrators present filtered information to GW’s highest governing body. At GW, seemingly a breeding ground for secrets that blow up into campus-wide disasters, we need students to bring a dose of reality to the school’s highest governing body.

The board’s website states that they oversee all “fiscal, academic, and physical operations.” In short, they allocate where our tuition dollars go. So it is necessary that there is a least one person on that board who can represent student concerns on how that money is spent.

Tuition is high – and it climbs a few percentage points each year for new students. GW is one of the most expensive schools in the nation even though it doesn’t rank in the top 50 best schools. A student vote could help sound the alarm that consistent tuition hikes discourage students from applying.

And last fall, the University spent an estimated half a million dollars on a largely unpopular rebranding campaign. If a student were there when the board approved that effort, perhaps their “no” vote would have been a wake-up call for administrators, who often need a reminder to keep students’ best interests at heart.

And although student advocates recently made headway on eliminating the statute of limitations in the University’s sexual assault policy, students would have been able to get the attention of leaders earlier and more effectively if students had a presence on the body charged with giving the policy their stamp of approval.

Though few universities allow students on boards of trustees, several colleges do have efficient models which allow for greater dialogue between students and administrators. Cornell University’s board of trustees, for example, is comprised of voting representatives from the student body and the faculty, as well as the appointed trustees from various fields of professional expertise.

Now, one vote might not sway a decision, but a student member would at least be able to attend every minute of every meeting, weighing into the discussion in tangible ways. It would allow student leaders who speak on behalf of all of us to provide as much advice or criticism as they feel necessary – instead of remarks being pigeonholed into a short, scripted speech the SA president gives at each meeting.

The student body’s unfair lack of voting representation on the board is like District residents’ ongoing struggle with fair representation. It seems illogical that individuals pay federal taxes (read: tuition) without any form of voting rights in either chamber of Congress (read: the board).

The board shot down a similar effort in 2004 under another University president and another board leader. But now, students have a window of opportunity: The newly inducted chair of the board, Nelson Carbonell, said that “the board would welcome any input,” and has said he wants to hear more from students. This is the best way to follow through.

Let’s hope he’s sincere, and that this isn’t just another empty promise from University officials to which we’ve all grown so accustomed.

The writer is a sophomore majoring in international affairs.