Student Government and Financial Burden for Johns Hopkins Undergraduate Student Government Association Members
February 29th, 2024
Director of Research, Jason Shumsky Student Body President, Ryan Chou Student Body Vice President, Jackson Morris
Many student governments across the country pay their student government members. A 2020 report conducted by the The American Student Government Association found that 85.88% of elected officers at state schools and 54.11% of elected officers at private schools earned salaries. Pay also varied in the form of salary, stipends, and benefits (including credit-hours, and discounts to tuition/board/textbooks) depending on the school. However, at Johns Hopkins, participation in the Undergraduate Student Government Association (SGA) is entirely voluntary. To investigate the effects this has had on Johns Hopkins SGA members and culture, a survey focused on the financial status of members and hours of commitment towards SGA required of them was drafted. The survey received 27 responses, representing approximately 35% of the SGA. 19 responses (70%) were legislative members, 6 (22%) were executive members, and 2 (7%) were judicial members. These demographics of respondents relatively represent the branch makeup of the SGA.
Majority of SGA members receive Financial Aid: 15 respondents (56%) indicated that they received need-based financial aid to assist in paying for their college fees.
Many SGA members receive work study and pell grant: 13 respondents (48%) indicated that they received any kind of work study. 9 respondents (33%) indicated that they received Hopkins-based work study, and 4 additional respondents (15%) indicated that they received Federal-based work study. Further, 9 respondents (33%) indicated that they receive Pell Grants from the Federal government.
SGA members who receive work study on average commit similar hours to SGA a week, but work more for pay outside of it: Both respondents with and without work study averaged 7 hours of work for SGA a week. However, respondents with work study averaged 11.6 hours of work for pay a week, whereas respondents that did not receive work study averaged 3.9 hours of work for pay a week.
SGA members feel unable to commit to SGA because of financial burden: 15 respondents (56%) indicated that they feel limited in the amount of time they can devote to SGA because of their financial burden. These respondents averaged 7.7 hours of work for SGA a week and 9 hours of work for pay outside of SGA each week.
Financial burden did not impact SGA members’ probability of maintaining additional leadership positions within SGA: Respondents who indicated that they had additional leadership positions within SGA averaged 7.4 hours of work a week for SGA, whereas respondents who did not averaged 6.5 hours of work a week. 9/15 (60%) respondents who received financial aid had additional leadership positions within SGA, whereas 7/12 (58.3%) respondents who did not receive financial aid had additional leadership positions within SGA.