Alan Zhou | Student Life

Members of the Student Union (SU) Treasury and Senate held internal elections to determine which members would serve in leadership positions for the upcoming school year on April 11. 

Sophomore treasure Sadie Karp was elected as the new Speaker of the Treasury, first-year Meris Damjanovic as Activities Committee Chair, and sophomore Leena Rai as Budget Committee Chair. 

Each senator running for a leadership position ran unopposed. Senators elected Junior Erin Ritter to be the Speaker of the Senate, and first-year Sonal Churiwal to chair the Diversity and Inclusion Committee. Sophomore Emilia Santana was also elected to chair the Academic Affairs Committee, sophomore Braeden Rose to head the Health and Wellness Committee, and first-year Da’juantay Wynter was re-elected as Campus and Residential Experience Chair. 

Elections took place in a closed internal meeting directly after new SU members were inaugurated into their positions, and the results of all elections were announced via Instagram posts later that evening. 

Junior Mishka Narasimhan, previously the Speaker of the Treasury and who was elected as Vice President of Finance on April 5, said that Karp is “going to do a great job.” 

Narasimhan expressed hope that the new executive members would make weekly Treasury meetings shorter and more efficient and work to have consistent funding decisions. 

“When student groups come into Treasury sessions, [they] should be able to pretty much predict exactly how [they] will be funded,” she said. “We want our policies to be as clear and as straightforward as possible.”

Ritter, who was previously the Chair of the Health and Wellness Committee on Senate, confirmed that all senate elections were uncontested and explained that as Speaker of the Senate, she will meet with all chairs once per week and organize Senate meeting agendas. 

She also plans on encouraging senators to work with student groups more directly to make sure “that Senate is as accessible as possible to its constituents.”