Student governments in the United States

Student governments in the United States exist in both secondary and higher education. A student government may also be known as the student government association, student assembly, associated students, student senate, or less commonly students' union. There is one instance of a government of the student body, at Iowa State University. At Yale University, the undergraduate student government is known as the Yale College Council.

Student governments vary widely in their internal structure and degree of influence on institutional policy. At institutions with large graduate, medical school, and individual "college" populations, there are often student governments that serve those specific constituencies. Some student governments have very large budgets; the student government at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) had an annual budget of $39 million as of 2013.

Elsewhere in the world, student governments are often known as "student unions." However, in American English, the phrase "student union" often refers to a "student activity center" (also known as a "student center" or "student commons"): a building with dining halls, game rooms, lounges, student offices, and other spaces for student activities.

Not all American colleges and universities have a separate student government. A number of small liberal arts colleges in the United States use a governance model in which key decisions are made democratically by the community as a whole, with students and faculty on equal footing. Examples of such schools include Marlboro College,Shimer College, and College of the Atlantic. In addition, historically, many US schools followed a "student-faculty council" model, with governance shared between elected representatives of the student body and the faculty.

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