Summer Dai ’22 was elected president of the Undergraduate Council of Students and Akilesh Raman ’22 was reelected as chair of the Undergraduate Finance Board in this year’s UCS and UFB spring elections, Elections Board Co-Chairs Ophelia Duchesne-Malone ’22 and Jessica Chiu ’21 announced in an email to the student body Friday night.
Samuel Caplan ’22 will serve as the next UCS vice president, and Claire Brown ’22 will serve as the next UFB vice chair.
The two referenda regarding descendants of enslaved Africans harmed by the University both passed. The first, which calls for the University to identify these descendants, passed with 88.61 percent of the vote. The second, which calls for the University to provide reparations to those who were identified, passed with 84.53 percent of the vote.
The referenda regarding amendments to the council’s structure and student government categorization reform all passed. The referendum that called for adding a transparency amendment to the UCS Constitution passed with 97.3 percent of the vote, and the referendum calling for the creation of a Student Government Ethics and Accountability Board passed with 90.18 percent of the vote.
The referendum asking if the Class Coordinating Board should be classified as a branch of University student government co-equal with UCS passed with 70.2 percent of the vote, and the referendum asking if UFB should “cease” being a subsidiary of UCS passed with 62.13 percent of the vote. This follows months of tense relations between CCB and UCS on whether CCB is in fact a branch of student government.
A referendum proposed by the student group Project LETS Erase the Stigma calling for the continuation of accessibility measures introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic passed with 97.13 percent of the vote.
A referendum proposed by the student group Students for Educational Equity passed with 73.65 percent of the vote. The referendum calls for the University to switch its admission practices to a test-optional policy that would not require applicants to submit SAT or ACT scores.
The University is not obligated to take action based on a referendum outcome, The Herald previously reported.
Dai, who currently serves as vice president, defeated Chair of Campus Life Zane Ruzicka ’23 with 57.9 percent of the vote.
Caplan, who is currently UCS chief of staff, won 51.6 percent of the vote to defeat Parliamentarian Zanagee Artis ’22.
“Every single candidate has definitely made an impact in the discourse at this University through the elections, and that is something that I’m actively thinking about in terms of how UCS is going to make policy next year,” Caplan told The Herald. “Next year we’ll be focused on making sure we’re centering student voices, supporting the groups who were willing to participate in this process and reforming UCS so we can build a better community together,” he added.
Raman won uncontested for UFB chair, winning 96.8 percent of the vote. Brown, who ran against Daniel Yadegar ’22 and Kushagra Agarwal ’22, won with 51.4 percent of the vote.
Zoe Fuad ’23 was elected Chair of Academic Affairs and Ricky Zhong ’23 will serve as Chair of Student Activities. Jai’el Toussaint ’22 was reelected as Chair of Equity and Inclusion, Mina Sarmas ’24 will serve as Chair of Campus Life, Emma Amselem Bensadon ’24 will serve as Chair of Health and Wellness and Ritiika Avarrsekar ’23 will serve as Treasurer.
Kushagra Agarwal ’22, Gianna DeVincenzo ’22, William Borges ’24, Mukul Khanna ’23, Amienne Spencer-Blume ’23, David Chu ’24 and Daniel Yadegar ’22 were chosen as at-large UFB representatives.
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