By Staff Writer Seth Tamarkin.
After weeks of candidates campaigning and a week for students to vote, the Student Government Association has officially listed the winners of the election for the upcoming 2019-2020 year.
Nicole Arruda accrued 258 votes to become the student trustee.
Next came the results from the various Senate seats up for grabs from the many different institutions on campus.
Commuter students got one Senate seat, and that seat was picked up by Bailey Sweet. Resident students also got a Senate seat, but, oddly enough, it seems the seat may go unfilled for now since the three winners all preferred to take a different seat they had won.
For the College of Arts & Sciences, there were eight Senate seats available. The eight winners are Amanda Kuffoh, Mavis Dwobeng, Isabelle Joseph, Kate Egan, Grace Mungai, Betty Elias, Ashley Asare, and finally Emely Remigio Vasquez.
The Charlton College of Business had six Senate seats up for the election. The winners who will represent CCB in the student senate are Natasha Shiku, Osamash “Sam” Masqood, Edward Yee, Alex Fossell, and Chris Varela. Varela won a seat despite being a write-in candidate. A fellow write-in candidate, Gavyn Starr, also won a Senate seat but was denied the seat.
The College of Engineering looked like the Democratic Presidential primaries, since there were over twenty candidates that got votes.
They only have two seats up for grabs though, so after the smoke was clear, the winners were Yashandeep Inu and Lynford Harris, the latter of which was denied a seat.
Similar to the engineers, the College of Visual & Performing Arts has two senate seats as well. Taking over those Senate seats for the 2019-2020 year will be Mary Roberts and David Cardenas.
Finally, the College of Nursing’s two Senate seats went to Jasmine Kelly. The other seat has still not been decided because it seems there was a tie.
Each class gets three senators too, and these races tend to have a lot of candidates running since they encompass an entire class of students. For the senior Class of 2020, the senators voted in were Amy Boateng, Mikayla Deloney, and Elena O’Connor.
For the Class of 2021, Pearl Amonu McCarthy, Hannah Atwater, and Oliver “Jack” Cady were all voted to become their senators next year.
Three new senators were also elected to represent the Class of 2022. Those new senators are Hannah Robinson, Harshil Patel, and Jacob Laryea.
For each class, there were class officer elections too. For Class of 2020, Mashiat Amreen became President, Emely Remigio Vasquez became Vice President, Brianna Patterson was elected to treasurer, and Jasmine Kelly was elected as the secretary.
For the Class of 2021, Yousra Bendarkawi, Pearl Amonu McCarthy, Patcha Udomratanakoson, and Isabelle Joseph were elected to become the President, Vice President, treasurer, and secretary respectively.
The Class of 2022 saw Harshil Patel, Narcisse Kunda, Edward Yee, Jayika Pauyo all win seats for President, Vice President, treasurer, and secretary respectively too.
In addition to the election, there was also a student referendum on the ballot. The referndum asked balloters to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ on if they support SGA sending a recommendaiton to the Chancellor, President, and Board of Trustees asking them to endorse SD.101 and SD.740.
The two bills are collectively known as the “Fund our Future” bills since they propose adding $1 billion to K-12 public education and another $500 million to higher education. The referndum won in a landslide.
For more information on SGA, check out their office in the campus center or https://sites.google.com/view/umassdsga.