In the Student Government Association’s spring general elections, students voted in favor of two referendums calling on the Undergraduate Council of Students to organize a student body-wide response to the federal government’s attack on higher education.
Results for the SGA’s spring general elections — which included the two referendums, as well as elected positions in the UCS, the Undergraduate Finance Board and the Class Coordinating Board — were announced Tuesday evening.
The first ballot measure, which asked students if the UCS should “organize a general strike” if Brown complies with any Trump administration demands to reopen funding negotiations, passed with 63% of 739 votes. The second measure, which asked if the UCS should “release public statements and organize university-wide actions” to affirm to University administration that the student body does not support the federal government’s actions, passed with 72% of 738 votes.
These questions came amid the Trump administration’s plans to freeze $510 million of Brown’s federal funding. The University is also currently under investigation by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’s Office for Civil Rights for allegedly violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits federally funded institutions from discriminating based on race, color or national origin.
Referendum questions only require a simple majority to pass, and the UCS is “responsible to represent those majority sentiments in its future actions,” according to the UCS’s Code of Operations.
But given that fewer than 750 of Brown’s over 7,000 undergraduates voted on these referendums, the “UCS must interpret the strength of these results with that in mind,” SGA Elections Chair Ethan Davis ’25 wrote in a message to The Herald.
Current UCS Vice President Talib Reddick ’26 was elected UCS president, and current UFB Chair Naomi LeDell ’26 was re-elected. Current UFB Representative At-Large Kieran Lucus ’26 will serve as UFB vice chair. Reddick, LeDell and Lucus all ran unopposed.
Reddick’s platform emphasized his continued dedication to improve the undergraduate experience at Brown and protect students in light of recent federal actions.
“I’m excited to continue fighting for students,” Reddick said in an interview with The Herald after results were announced.
According to Reddick, he will now be the second Black man to serve as UCS president.
Although LeDell was fairly certain she would be elected, she told The Herald she was “grateful” that she secured the position.
In her second year as UFB chair, she plans to organize an orientation event introducing incoming first-year students to student government at Brown, she said.
Eugenia Bamfo ’27 — who is currently the UCS’s interim chair of the Campus Life committee — will serve as UCS vice president. The two other candidates for th4e position were Tommy Medlin ’27, the current UCS Chair of Student Activities, and Balázs Cserneczky ’28, who is not currently involved in the UCS.
After one round of rank-choice voting, Bamfo received only 39% of the 759 votes for UCS vice president, while Medlin received 33% and Cserneczky received 17%. 10% of voters abstained.
After all first-choice votes for the last-place candidate — Cserneczky — were redistributed to the voters’ second-choice candidates, Bamfo won the election with nearly 51% of total votes, while Medlin received just 43%.
After the results were announced, Bamfo said she is “ready to assume office” and keep students informed about recent federal actions. She added that she intends to carry out the actions mentioned in the referendums despite the low voter turnout.
“We’re still going to stand by students,” Bamfo told The Herald.
Kate Choi ’26 and Nick Lee ’26 will serve as senior co-presidents for the CCB. Choi and Lee — who are the current CCB junior class vice president and president, respectively — both ran unopposed. Current UFB Vice Chair Catherine Jia ’26 will be the CCB senior treasurer after running unopposed.
Of the 31 races in this year’s election, more than 20 were uncontested. Five races had no candidates at all.
According to Davis, only 16% of Brown’s 7,272 undergraduates voted in this year’s elections — the lowest turnout rate since at least 2022. In 2022, 35% of Brown’s undergraduate student body voted in runoff elections. In 2023, the turnout rate decreased to 29%, and last year, only 21% of students voted.
Ahead of this year’s elections, the SGA delayed the election timeline by nearly a month and extended the voting period from two days to one week in part to increase voter turnout. Last week, the SGA also hosted a candidate forum with the Brown Political Union to encourage student engagement.
In an interview with The Herald, Davis said he was unsure why voter turnout dropped so significantly this year, even after the SGA took measures in hopes of increasing it. But he suspects that the reduced voter turnout was a result of a lack of student interest in student government at Brown.
Davis said that over the next few weeks, he will be “devoting some time” to understanding the drop in turnout. He added that he hopes to “integrate student government elections into the broader political scene of life on campus.”
Davis also hopes the SGA can encourage more students to run in future years, noting that “if there’s more competition, people will campaign harder.”
For the CCB, Ava Stamatakis ’27 was re-elected president of the 2027 class board for the third year in a row, and Fiona Shen ’28 was re-elected president of the 2028 class board. Both candidates ran unopposed.
Grace Zhong ’28, Leanna Le ’27, Aidan Lu ’27 and Stanley Wong ’28 will serve as UFB at-large representatives. There are still three vacant positions for at-large representatives.
For the UCS, Rachel El Grably ’28 will serve as the UCS Chair of Academic Affairs after defeating opponent Asher Patel ’28. Meruka Vyas ’28 defeated Sophia Mun ’28 to become the Chair of Campus Life. Sabrina Liu ’28 was elected as the Chair of Health and Wellness, overcoming opponent Neil Stringer ’27.
Shayyan Ahmed ’27 — a current Herald columnist — will serve as the Chair of Equity and Inclusion, and Alexa Theodoropoulos ’27 was elected Treasurer. Both students ran uncontested.
UCS Chair of Student Activities and SGA Elections Chair are both still vacant, as well as several senior class CCB positions. All vacant positions will be “filled in the coming weeks,” according to Davis.
Elected candidates will assume their roles in the fall.
Correction: This article has been updated to accurately reflect the graduating year of Shayyan Ahmed ’27.
Hadley Carr is a university news editor at The Herald, covering academics & advising and student government.
