Todd Harris ’14.5, Afia Kwakwa ’14 and Daniel Pipkin ’14 will compete to be president of the Undergraduate Council of Students in this year’s election.
Sam Gilman ’15 is running unopposed for UCS Vice President. Leila Veerasamy ’15 and Alexander Sherry ’15 will face off for Undergraduate Finance Board Chair. No one is running for the position of UFB Vice Chair.
The executive candidates, along with those running for other UCS and UFB leadership positions, submitted their petitions to run and reviewed campaign regulations at the candidates’ meeting Monday night.
Harris told The Herald he wants to improve the student advising system by “giving faculty (members) incentives for being good advisors,” increase alum-student partnerships and improve the Council’s relationship with students.
“Increasing awareness is always important,” Harris said, adding he was surprised that a lot of students he asked to sign his petition to run did not know about UCS’s initiatives.
Kwakwa also stressed the importance of student government’s transparency to the student body.
“I’m a very big advocate of transparency. I think it’s very important that UCS reaches out and gets feedback from students,” Kwakwa said. She said she also hopes to foster more interaction between UCS alums and current UCS members and ensure quality hydration facilities in dormitories.
Pipkin identified specific goals he would work toward if elected, like moving the date for declaring a grade option one week later, ensuring the quality of dormitories and expanding the University’s need-blind admission policies.
“I would be focusing not only on the macro policy for need-blind but also the micro issues,” Pipkin said.
Gilman said he will run for UCS Vice President unopposed on the platform of “connecting Brown” to both internal and external communities.
“UCS has the power to be a nexus for different communities,” Gilman said, adding that he hopes to use his familiarity with the Swearer Center for Public Service through his role as a Starr Fellow to “centralize resources for students seeking to be entrepreneurs and change-makers” in the greater Providence community.
Veerasamy and Sherry are both running for UFB Chair on platforms to increase training for UFB’s financial signatories and improve interactions between UFB representatives and student groups.
Though they endorsed similar platforms, Veerasamy and Sherry said they differ in their specific ideas for improving the student group funding process.
Veerasamy told The Herald she would “prioritize and promote groups that want to pursue ambitious projects,” while Sherry said he hopes to make UFB representatives meet earlier “from day one” with the student groups they represent.
Maahika Srinivasan ’15 is the sole candidate running for Academics and Administrative Affairs Chair, and Sazzy Gourley ’16 and Andrea Wistuba Behrens ’16 will compete for the position of Admission and Student Services Chair. Gregory Chatzinoff ’15, Malikah Williams ’16 and Ho Jun Yang ’16 will face off to be Campus Life Chair. Alex Dreschler ’15, a Herald opinions columnist, is running unopposed for the position of Student Activities Chair, and Alana Bhatla ’16 is running unopposed for the position of Treasurer.
Candidates for UCS President, UCS Vice President and UFB Chair will face off in a formal debate sponsored by the UCS Elections Board and The Herald Thursday at 8 p.m. in Metcalf Auditorium.
“There have been no surprises” in the elections process thus far, said Caleb Miller ’16, elections board chair and a senior staff writer for The Herald, adding that the elections board has not had to disqualify any candidates.
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