Vanessa Garcia ’20.5, Melissa Lee ’20 and William Zhou ’20 are running for president of the Undergraduate Council of Students in this year’s UCS and Undergraduate Finance Board elections. Chair of Student Activities Alex Song ’20 and Appointments Chair Jason Carroll ’21 are in the race for UCS Vice President.
UFB Vice Chair Julian De Georgia ’20 and UFB Member At-Large Alesandro Walker ’20 will vie for UFB Chair and three at-large UFB representatives will contend for UFB Vice Chair — Phillip Champagne ’21, Peter Deegan ’21 and Fatoumata Kabba ’22.
All candidates for president hold positions on UCS this year, guaranteeing that next year’s president will have served on UCS at the time of their election for the first time since the 2015-16 school year. Garcia serves as UCS Secretary, Lee as Chair of Campus Life and Zhou as Vice President. Zhou ran for vice president last year and served as co-chief of staff before being elected vice president in an internal election earlier this semester, The Herald previously reported.
The three candidates for president mark an increase from last year, when Shanzé Tahir ’19 defeated Fabrice Guyot-Sionnest ’20, and the year before when Chelse-Amoy Steele ’18 ran unopposed. Last year’s UFB election also featured two candidates for UFB Chair, while DeGeorgia ran unopposed for UFB Vice Chair.
Livingstone Harriott Jr. ’20 will run uncontested for UCS Chair of Academic Affairs and does not currently hold a UCS position. Academic Affairs and Campus Life Committees member Zanagee Artis ’22 will run uncontested for UCS Chair of Campus Life and incumbent Shivani Nishar ’20 will run unopposed for UCS Chair of Student Wellness. Chima Amushie ’21, who does not currently hold a position in UCS, will be unconstested on the ballot for Chair of Student Activities.
There are five candidates to fill the eight available UFB at-large representative positions. Current at-large members Gianna DeVincenzo ’22, Jeewon Shin ’21 and Nimo Ismail ’21 are running along with Okezie Okoro ’22 and Akilesh Raman ’22, who are not at-large representatives. Unsuccessful candidates for UFB Chair and Vice Chair will automatically be entered into the at-large race.
“We look forward to an election that will promote conversations surrounding important campus issues,” Elections Board Co-Chairs Katie Barry ’19 and Kathryn Stack ’19 wrote in an email to The Herald. “We are happy to see that a lot of positions are contested this year, which we hope will result in greater student interest and involvement in the elections process.”
Candidates for UCS President, UCS Vice President, UFB Chair and UFB Vice Chair will participate in a public debate Sunday evening. All student groups who plan to endorse candidates must have a representative present at the debate. Voting for all positions will occur from 12 p.m. Tuesday, March 19 until 12 p.m. Thursday, March 21 through an online survey that will be sent to all undergraduates.
