The Undergraduate Council of Students kicked off the year by electing new members to its executive board — some of whom will help solicit student feedback on the recently released draft of President Christina Paxson’s strategic plan — at its first general body meeting Wednesday.
The Council elected Alex Sherry ’15 vice chair of the Undergraduate Finance Board — a position that was vacant because no candidates ran for it during last spring’s external elections — over competitors Abeba Cherinet ’15 and Jonathan Padmore ’14. Sherry ran for chair of the board last spring and lost to current UFB Chair Leila Veerasamy ’15.
Sherry said in his speech to the Council that if elected UFB vice chair, he would work to address the “breakdown of communication” between UFB representatives and student group leaders.
UCS President Todd Harris ’14.5 also announced that he and UCS Vice President Sam Gilman ’15 had chosen five finalists out of a pool of 30 to serve as student representatives on the Dean of the College search committee — the committee tasked with finding a replacement for Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron. UCS will recommend the finalists to Provost Mark Schlissel P’15, who will select two or three student representatives and two or three alternates to serve on the committee.
The finalists include Paul Tran ’14, Amelia Armitage ’15, Abi Kulshreshta ’15, Krishan Aghi ’15 and Emma Dickson ’16.
Harris did not say if he knew whether there was a clear timeline yet for when a new dean will be named. Bergeron will leave the University at the end of December.
The Council elected Kiera Peltz ’16, a Herald staff writer, to serve as communications chair. Peltz will be responsible for facilitating communication between the Council and the student body.
Peltz said in her speech to the Council that she wants to sponsor “events that link UCS with the student body” this year, such as volleyball on the Main Green and dance parties in the Sciences Library during reading period.
Gilman — who served as communications chair when he was a first-year — said Peltz would be tasked with gathering students’ input on the draft of the strategic plan, a document expected to shape Paxson’s agenda for the University over the next decade.
Gilman added that Ross Julian ’15, who was elected Corporation liaison, would also have the duty of presenting students’ feedback on the draft at the October Corporation meeting.
The Council also selected Thomas Sudac ’16 to facilitate communication between the Council and UFB as UCS-UFB liaison and Jeff Salvador ’16 to appoint undergraduates to University committees as appointments chair.
Luke Camre ’16 will work to connect alums with current undergraduates as alumni liaison. The role of alumni liaison may carry more weight this year, since Harris has named creating alumni-student partnerships as one of his top priorities, The Herald previously reported.
The Council also elected Thomas Abebe ’16, Raisa Cramer ’16, Sameer Sarkar ’16 and Cherinet as UFB representatives, Andrea Wistuba-Behrens ’16 as secretary, Ryan Lessing ’16 as parliamentarian pro tempore and Natalie Palaychuk ’16 and Luke Camery ’16 as webmasters.
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