On Monday, the Student Government Association and the Brown Political Union hosted a candidate forum for students running for senior positions in the SGA’s spring general elections. The event drew over 200 attendees and featured speeches from candidates followed by open tabling.
Voting for the spring general elections will open April 16 at noon.
This year, six candidates are running unopposed for positions on the Undergraduate Council of Students and the Undergraduate Finance Board. These six candidates include current UCS Vice President Talib Reddick ’26, who is running for UCS president, and current UFB Chair Naomi LeDell ’26, who is running for re-election.
Forum attendees heard from Reddick, LeDell, Kieran Lucus ’26 — who is running unopposed for UFB vice chair — and the three candidates running for UCS vice president. Attendees also heard from Kate Choi ’26, current vice president for the Class Coordinating Board's 2026 class board, and Nick Lee ’26, current president for CCB's 2026 class board. Choi and Lee are both running for CCB senior co-president.
In speeches throughout the evening, candidates discussed the Trump administration’s current threats to higher education, including federal actions that have targeted Brown. Multiple candidates mentioned recent visa revocations from some Brown students and recent graduates, as well as the White House’s plans to freeze $510 million of the University’s federal funding.
In her remarks, Eugenia Bamfo ’27, one of the candidates running for UCS vice president, told attendees that “advocating for students will continue to remain my main priority.”
“I’ll use my position to push the University by reminding them that complying with federal demands will only harm and put their most vulnerable students at risk,” she said. Bamfo added that, if elected, she will be in constant communication with the Undocumented, First-Generation College and Low-Income Student Center and the Dream Team, a student group that advocates for undocumented+ people on and off College Hill.
Balázs Cserneczky ’28, another candidate for UCS vice president, said he plans to “leverage the legitimacy of UCS to mobilize our students to protect our community.”
Cserneczky began his remarks by telling the story of his teacher who was fired by the Hungarian government, an incident Cserneczky said ignited his interest in student government.
In his speech, Cserneczky said he is organizing a referendum to appear on the ballot. The referendum, which was approved by the SGA on Tuesday, will ask voters if the UCS should “organize a general strike of the student body, if at any point, the University decides to comply with the demands of the federal government following the frozen funds.”
The referendum will also ask whether the UCS should “release public statements and organize University-wide actions to assure the Brown administration of the student body’s wholehearted support in the resistance against the federal government’s attack on higher education.”
Current UCS Student Activities Chair Tommy Medlin ’27, the third candidate for UCS vice president, said that his nearly two years of experience on the council would allow him to “continue delivering results at a much higher level.”
“I am fully prepared to use my knowledge of administration to improve student quality of life as well as to protect students from prosecution and deportation,” Medlin said. “We must do everything in our power to make sure that Brown does not comply, but we must also make changes to improve our lives as students.”
If the student body elects Reddick as UCS president, he will be the second Black man to have served in the position, according to Reddick.
“Student government has allowed me to fulfill my purpose with what I love the most,” Reddick said, pointing to his successful efforts to bring milkshakes to Josiah’s. “I’d like to continue making changes like this,” he added.
Reddick said that, if elected president, he hopes to focus on student life, in part by improving Brown’s filtered water systems.
In her remarks at the event, LeDell committed to preventing the growth rate of the Student Activities Fee from increasing in light of the federal funding freeze. The fee, which is currently $428, is paid by students as a part of their tuition to fund on-campus activities, according to the University website.
For the upcoming academic year, LeDell helped secure a $203,000 increase to the total student activities budget, she told The Herald. She also emphasized that she streamlined the funding process for clubs.
At the event, candidates expressed concern about the lack of student body engagement with the SGA. Last spring’s general election saw a voter turnout of just 21%, The Herald previously reported.
In an effort to “promote engagement,” SGA Elections Chair Ethan Davis ’25 reached out to BPU President Logan Tullai ’25 to organize a candidate forum for this year, Tullai said in an interview with The Herald.
Attendee Aidan Hennessey ’25 told The Herald that when voting in SGA elections in previous years, he made a “split-second decision” based on a document describing each candidate’s platform. Hennessey said hearing from the candidates would have helped him “make a more informed choice.”
Gabriel Gonzalez ’28, who originally came to support his friends who were campaigning, said it was “interesting getting an insight into student government.”
“For many students at Brown, this is the first time they’ve heard the issues discussed publicly,” Davis said.
Davis hopes the event will “build up a tradition of political engagement around student government,” he added.
Clarification: This article has been updated to clarify that CCB senior co-president candidates also presented speeches at the forum.
Hadley Carr is a university news editor at The Herald, covering academics & advising and student government.
