Sal Orlando, News Editor
Two former VCU Student Government Association members resigned from the association last month over a series of grievances.
Rosalyn Harper, a former SGA senator, stated in an email that she resigned from the association because it had reached a point where staying a senator would mean complicity with a “culture of retaliation, systemic hostility and bad-faith governance.”
“Student government should be an environment where emerging leaders advocate for their peers and defend the vulnerable,” Harper stated. “Instead, I found myself constantly fighting an executive board that marginalized disabled members, policed peers’ personal backgrounds, suppressed democratic dissent and weaponized microaggressions against anyone who pushed back.”
Harper stated that two main incidents caused her to step down, one being the “bad-faith targeting” regarding disability accommodations last semester. She stated that she watched leadership penalize a disabled senator over dress code mandates and conceal the Judicial Board ruling that excused him.
“When I advocated for accessibility, [then] Press Secretary Bowen pulled me into a private, unsanctioned meeting to audit that student’s wardrobe and dismissively suggested he purchase alternative business attire — completely ignoring the financial realities of working-class students,” Harper stated.
Harper stated that the second incident was the mistreatment of a written response following the shooting at Virginia State University. She stated that the response was plagiarized from a tribute that she had written following the shooting at Old Dominion University.
“When I wrote an original statement honoring VSU’s history as an HBCU, leadership and senators spent 45 minutes during a public meeting tearing it down, deriding it as ‘too flowery’ and ‘too much like Maya Angelou,’” Harper stated. “Using the name of an incredible Black poet as an insulting statement written for an HBCU mourning gun violence was a profound cultural microaggression and it made it unmistakably clear that our leadership had lost its moral compass.”
Harper stated she believes the current SGA is ineffective at representing the real interests of the student body, and wants to see the association prioritize basic human decency over the culture they currently implement. She said she feels that the association relies on a system of containment, suppression and narrative control whenever its misconduct is exposed.
Harper stated that when former Secretary of the Interior Jackson Mallory resigned from the SGA, leadership moved to censoring discussion in the association’s Slack channel. President Natalie Bowen sent an email following the resignation to the Senate to control the narrative, rather than addressing the mistreatment Mallory cited in his resignation, Harper said.
Mallory said he resigned from the SGA because of incidents that unfolded in the spring 2026 semester, and felt it was clear that the organization was dysfunctional, which he did not expect to change.
Mallory said he disagreed with the mishandling of dress code accommodations extended to a senator with a disability. Delinquencies toward the senator were pressured by Bowen, Mallory said.Mallory said the SGA’s response to the VSU shooting was another reason for his resignation, after wanting to give this year’s leadership a chance to improve.
Mallory said that he feels that the SGA does not have much to show for its work, and often concerns itself with internal matters.
“The comment [under an SGA Instagram post] had said something along the lines of, I wish you all would stop focusing on internal matters and instead make change for students,” Mallory said. “I clicked through each of the five or six bills that we had passed, and that student or person was right.”
Mallory said that in February, he passed a bill that would embed software into the SGA’s website allowing students to see meeting minutes, legislation, agendas and other documents. He said that the software is still not up.
“Should it be taking our student body a year to implement simple changes?” Mallory asked. “I think not, and that’s why I find myself in agreeance with that, that person who had made a disheartening but real comment on our Instagram page about our effectiveness.”
Mallory said some new leadership board members deserve time to adjust to their positions, but that Bowen has already served on leadership before.
Mallory said that as a leadership member, he was required to go on a three-day retreat with the rest of the leadership board, which would cost him over $6,000. Due to financial struggles, he had to inform President Bowen that he would be unable to attend.
“She asked if I could come for a day or if I could do this, and that ‘we spent a lot of money,’ and that’s when the passive-aggressive comments of ‘your job’s not optional,’ or ‘please keep in mind that you get paid for this position.’”
Mallory said his final push to resign was leadership’s decision to remove former Senator Sadman Mahmood after not providing an exception for him turning his required volunteer hours in half a day late. Mallory said that then Press Secretary Natalie Bowen brought up false testimonies that Mahmood did not serve his volunteer hours, skewing the decision of the chief justice.
“There is proof that he did do his hours, and I believe that false testimony is certainly a ground for appeals, however, there was not much done to reconcile with the former senator,” Mallory said.
Former SGA Senator Sadman Mahmood said that he had witnesses present during his volunteer hours, and brought forth the evidence to the former president and chief justice, but they could not do anything because it was just after they had handed over power. He then reached out to the SGA advisor to schedule a meeting with President Bowen and Chief Justice Rodrigue Gomado.
Mahmood said that Bowen admitted in the meeting that the comments she had made were not appropriate and that she had relayed information without verifying it.
The chief justice required Bowen to send an email to the association admitting she had mischaracterized Mahmood and exonerated him of the claims made against him, according to Mahmood. He said the email was intended to be sent at the beginning of the fall 2026 semester, but he had to reach out to receive it.
“The email was essentially just saying that she had heard all this stuff from other people as she just sent it out, it wasn’t really an apology,” Mahmood said.
On Sept. 21, the SGA addressed Harper and Mallory’s resignations during its senate meeting.During the meeting, Bowen said that leadership had reflected on the messages sent following the resignations, and requested that members give leadership grace because the majority are new to their positions. She said she believes that new leadership should not be held accountable for the mistakes of past leadership.
Bowen stated in an email that the conflict surrounding dress code accommodations last year was a series of “miscommunications between leadership and senators and leadership amongst themselves.
“We were able to finally sit down with advisors and the involved senator to effectively work through that miscommunication privately, clear the air and apologize for the series of events that contributed to alleged hostility, hurt feelings, humiliation and confusion on both sides of the situation,” Bowen stated.
Bowen stated that current leadership has undergone discussion to ensure they are good role models and a calming presence during times of high tension.
Bowen clarified that the Student Conduct and Academic Integrity held an investigation and found that the SGA was not responsible for discrimination, harassment and retaliation.Bowen stated that following Mallory’s resignation, all but two members of leadership were left off of the resignation email and the press secretary requested that conversations stay out of the Slack channel while leadership further understands the situation.
“I have sat in many different seats during my time in SGA: Senator, Press Secretary, caucus chair and founder, President,” Bowen stated. “Through all these positions, I have maintained a consistent effort of advocating for more public transparency regarding behind-the-scenes occurrences and SGA history.”
Bowen stated that the SGA strives to enforce an environment where people can express their opinions, disagree and give constructive feedback.
“Our bylaws, however, are not perfect and do not cover every possible subject or scenario that could transpire,” Bowen stated. “In those instances, decisions are left up to the discretion of the leadership board or judiciary committee. If personal issues ever prevent them from meeting the expectations and requirements of our Senate, we openly encourage senators and delegates to talk to the leadership board to work out a pragmatic solution to the issue.”
Bowen stated the SGA is sometimes limited in what they can do by VCU, citing financial allocations or government restrictions. In those circumstances, the SGA will ask what can be done to mitigate the obstacle, resulting in collaboration between administration, the SGA and students.
Bowen stated that messages sent to Mallory regarding the leadership retreat were only sent through Slack and the message she sent was completely professional.
Bowen stated there was no room for discussion regarding the removal of Mahmood from senate, given leadership and advisors confirmed the language in the SGA bylaws mandated the removal of senators for not completing volunteer hours. He was encouraged to reapply the following Fall semester, but his decision not to was respected, according to Bowen.
SGA Press Secretary, Reagan LaFleur, stated in an email that current leadership has reflected on previous experiences with the SGA and identified where communication and transparency could be improved.
“Following the recent concerns shared about communication and transparency, leadership
introduced several concrete changes,” LaFleur stated. “These changes include bi-weekly updates from leadership, committees and senators, as well as more detailed leadership meeting minutes.”
LaFleur stated that the SGA has worked on several changes to improve upon itself, including a public agenda of the president, giving senators opportunities to develop solutions for campus issues, creating strict deadlines for projects and increasing opportunities for committees to work together.