yum!

Student council elections are upon us! At Barnard’s SGA Candidates Forum last night, the Pinkberry was late but the candidates were not. 33 different candidates spoke about their qualifications and plans for the future. Only 10 of the 22 open positions were contested. Read on to learn some of what those candidates had to say to try to differentiate themselves, and for some hot takes about general themes of the evening.

Junior Class Vice President:

• Tanisha Aggarwal ’20 spoke about her experience as a transfer student this year, as well as recently moving to America. She is involved in the Barnard No Aramark movement, the Athena Pre-Law society, and Sophomore Class Council. She says that she knows “what it means to act as a bride between the highly diverse student population and the admin.”
• Celine Zhu ’20 spoke very quickly and very emphatically about her work on the class council and the financial review committee. She spoke about her recent successful laundry subsidy pilot program endowment proposal, saying “I have proved that I know how to work with the administration to get things done.” As class VP, she plans to advocate for transportations subsidies for students with unpaid internships and a comprehensive guide for transfer students.

Sophomore Class President

• Tina Gao ’21, current First-Year Class Vice President, spoke about learning to identify shortcomings in the current council and “finding tangible solutions to fix them.” She plans to encourage student communication through a shared SGA calendar and improve the majors fair. She also hopes to work with FGLI students and collaborate with identity-based interest groups.
• Anna Peña ’21 similarly spoke about giving identity-based groups on campus a bigger platform, and supporting marginalized students. As a member of the Inclusion and Equity Committee, she worked on issues of laundry, food insecurity, the textbook lending library, and health care access. Uniquely, she mentioned increasing the the hours of JJ’s Place open to Barnard students as part of her platform.
• Dana Ross ’21 talked about her experience on class councils in high school, and how she can use skills learned there to serve the Barnard community. “I cannot know the desires of the entire class,” she said, “but I will create opportunities for peers to voice concerns and opinions.

Junior Representative to the Board of Trustees

• Jessica Cruz ’20 discussed her plans to advocate for the interests of marginalized students by bringing issues of food insecurity, campus resources, and FGLI concerns to the Board.
• Sydney Fox ’20 was the School Board Representative for her entire county in high school, an experience she thinks prepared her for this position. She hopes to start an alumna mentoring program, emphasize the need for more grants for unpaid internships, and increase mental health awareness.

Representative for Academic Affairs

• Solace Mensah-Narh ’21 plans to focus her efforts on increasing inclusivity in the classroom, transparency between students and professors, and addressing the stigma against students struggling academically. She also hopes to create a mid-semester evaluation system so that students can voice their concerns and opinions in a constructive way.
• Hadassah Solomson ’20 spoke about her experience on the academic affairs committee. She hopes to improve student dealings with the registrar by creating an online portal, make course evaluations public, and expand Foundation course options. She also plans to work on the course planning function, as the one currently in use by Barnard is inconvenient and buggy.
• Talia Welte ’20 spoke about how serving on the current Committee on Policy and and the Finance Committee helped her realize how students can have an impact on big issues at Barnard. She hopes to increase the transparency of the Rep’s role, and minimize existing barriers to student academic success.

Representative for Arts and Culture

• Demme Durrett ’19 currently serves on the Committee on Arts and Culture and the 2019 Class Council. She plans to advocate for space for art in the new Milstein Center and share information about free art and cultural events in the city. She also hopes to help build a more “well-rounded and inclusive vision of Arts and Culture at Barnard.”
• Phanesia Pharel ’21 spoke about her Barnard admissions essay, which discussed her experiences finding herself through art. “Culture is something that is integral to who I am,” she said. She hopes to increase representation in arts on campus.

Representative for Campus Affairs

• Gabrielle Obregon ’21 hopes to advocate for her peers by connecting the student body with administrators. She wants to create oppurtunities to “encourage Barnard students to come closer to each other.”
• Chelsea Sinclair ’21 spoke about the work she’s already done on the Campus Affairs Committee, including an initiative for”free” laundry (to be included in housing costs). She hopes to work to improve the sign-in policy and act as a liaison for student concerns on campus.

Representative for Food and Dining

• Blythe Drucker ’21 said “I love Barnard, but we all have our own issues with it.” In this position, she hopes to create solutions for food insecurity on campus, and make sure Hewitt is clean and sanitary.
• Yeliz Sezgin ’21 also focused on the problem of food insecurity. She also hopes to work to create vegetarian and Halal options on campus and “hold Aramark accountable.”

Representative for Health Services

• Ava Adler ’20 hopes to prioritze equal access to medical services on campus, making sure that all students are “safe, comfortable, and heard.” She wants to help create “integrative and accommodating services” such as more flexible walk-in hours.
• Emma Erenmark ’21 said that at the beginning of the year “I thought it was only me having a hard time adjusting to Barnard.” Now that she realizes this feeling is common among many students, she hopes to create effective mental health programs to help students feel more comfortable. She also emphasized integrating student feedback, saying that “together we can do better.”

Representative for Information and Technology

• Yasmine Kaya ’19 hopes to create practical solutions for issues on campus, such as adding more available outlets and extending the uni expiration date. She is also excited to work with the new Milstein Center, encouraging a “more interdisciplinary engagement with technology.
• Rebecca Narin ’21 plans to create ways for Barnard students to share their academic strengths in ways that better the whole college community. She envisions creating a system for students to share notes and class advice with each other, thereby “expanding friend groups and grades” and “foster collaboration across the student body.”

Vice President for Communication

• • Julia Pickel ’19 currently serves on SGA as Representative for Seven Sisters Relations. Next year, she hopes to increase transparency by creating an online platform to access SGA information and a shared calendar.
  • Kim Samala ’20 said “my goal is simple: I want to connect all of us.” She hopes to do that by utilizing her experiences as an RA and dealings with both BC and CU administrations. She also hopes to create an SGA mobile app.

The candidates for the twelve other open positions on Rep Council are running unopposed, but they did still get a chance to speak last night to share their visions for SGA’s future. Common themes include increasing representation of marginilized students, working to address food insecurity, increasing transparency and communication, and some other buzzwords which only very vaguely mean anything. VP Policy-to-be Mia Lindheimer ’19 and next year’s SGA President Nicola Kirkpatrick both mentioned the upcoming constitutional review, which allows SGA the oppurtunity to change how they run and how their bylaws operate. “Please email me,” said Kirkpatrick at the end of the speeches. “I have a whole page of ideas, and I need a lot of help to get them done.”

SGA voting is open on MyBarnard under the “Campus Life” tab until Wednesday, April 18 at noon.

Image via Flickr.