The Undergraduate Council of Students hosted special elections for Undergraduate Finance Board at-large representative at its general body meeting Wednesday evening. This special election comes after the majority of the Council abstained when sole candidate Richard Dong ’23, a copy editor for The Herald, ran in last week’s special election.
Seven candidates ran for the position of Undergraduate Finance Board at-large representative: Argent Martinez ’25, Finn Harrington ’24, Max Xu ’24, Michael Houming Ling ’25, Richard Shen ’23, Rohan Krishnan ’25 and William Lin ’24.
After a two-minute speech from each candidate and a combined question-and-answer session in which each had 20 seconds to answer questions posed by UCS members, the general body voted in three rounds.
Martinez and Shen were the two candidates remaining in the final round of voting. Results from the final round of voting will be released Thursday at the latest, UCS President Summer Dai ’22 said.
Both Martinez and Shen hope to help UFB support student clubs on campus.
“I think reallocating (UFB) funds to more low-income and environmental … groups on campus is what UFB should be trying to do, symbolically just trying to increase the amount of participation and welfare,” Martinez said.
“The reason I'm here today is because last week, I was at a UFB meeting representing the band,” Shen said. “I just thought that the level of professionalism and just the sheer … power in that room was very, very inspiring.”
Many of the contenders also spoke about their hopes to serve and strengthen the diverse community at Brown. Proposed initiatives included recognizing the power and importance of financial support and establishing well-informed relationships between UFB representatives and student group leaders.
The UFB representative works and regularly meets with around 20 student groups to assist them with submitting budgets. They also attend weekly meetings and participate in UFB’s decision-making process, according to a Feb. 12 email from UCS to The Herald.
Also at the meeting, Max Karpawich ’23, UCS transfer and resumed undergraduate education representative, proposed a TRUE Resolution, which called “the University to provide UCS with the ability to send direct emails to TRUE students,” according to the UCS meeting slides.
Being able to send those emails will accomplish goals such as holding popular elections for the UCS TRUE representative, establishing a Facebook group for TRUE students and surveying TRUE student experiences. Last semester, Karpawich asked the University for the ability to directly email TRUE students but was denied, he said. Having the public support of UCS could help him gain access to the emails, he added.
The resolution ultimately passed, meaning that it has the support of UCS.
Joon Nam ’23, UCS chair of appointments, noted that UCS is also currently looking for a student to fill a temporary, one-semester position on the Dining Council, which “serves as the advisory board for Brown Dining Services regarding issues such as (the) meal plan.”
UCS Vice President Sam Caplan ’22 also mentioned that UCS will enter a new elections code that combines the election processes of UCS, UFB and the Class Coordinating Board into one single election for the newly formed Student Government Association.
The new code, which will change the election timeline and debate procedure, aims to make the elections “more accessible and less stressful,” Dai said.
Kathy Wang is the senior editor of community of The Brown Daily Herald's 134th Editorial Board. She previously covered student government and international student life as a University News editor. When she's not at The Herald, you can find her watching cooking videos or writing creative nonfiction.
