The Student Union held its Fall Election filling 12 senate seats, one representative position, one allocations board seat and five judiciary positions. 359 students participated in the elections this year, according to the demographic breakdown.
Students were instructed to vote only for the positions which they are a demographic of, according to the Round 1 Election Packet 2021 document shared by Student Union President Krupa Sourirajan ’23. Meaning students in the class of 2025 could vote for the Senator for the Class of 2025 but not for the Senator for the Class of 2024. Similarly, students could only vote for the Quad Senator for where they are currently living on campus.
There were four class senator positions open for this election. Shannon Smally ’22 won the Senator for Class of 2022 seat. Smally ran unopposed, and received 84.38 percent of the vote, receiving 46 votes out of the 55 that voted for the position. The Senator for Class of 2023 is Emily Adelson ’23. Adelson ran unopposed and received 83.64 percent of the vote. Dwayne “the rock” Johnson did receive a vote in the “other” write-in option for the position. The Senator for Class of 2025 position had two seats open, Lia Bergen ’25 and Camaron Johnson ’25 won the available positions. Bergen and Johnson were two of five students running for the position. Bergen received 27.8 percent of the vote while Johnson won 27.41 percent of the vote. Each received 72 and 71 votes respectively.
For Quad senator positions, there were five seats open. There was one seat open for the Massel Quad Senator, Peyton Gillespie ’25 won the position against Kat Roberts ’25. Gillespie received 62 of the 109 votes. The North Quad Senator position was won by Meli Jackson ’25. Jackson won with 75.86 percent of the vote, running unopposed.
East Quad Senator is Sahil Muthuswami ’24. Muthuswami ran against Ben Topol ’24 and won 54.17 percent of the vote where Topol had 41.67 percent of the vote. The 567 and Village Quads Senator position was won by Nicholas Kanan ’23. Kanan won with 66.67 percent of the vote, running unopposed. Rosenthal and Skyline Senator had one seat open, which was won by Asher Brenner ’24 who ran unopposed. Brenner won 70 percent of the vote.
The Racial Minority Senator position had two seats open, which were won by Rani Balakrishna ’25 and Herry Wang ’25. Balakrishna and Wang received 47.28 and 39.67 percent of the vote respectively. They ran unopposed for the positions. The Myra Kraft Transitional Year Program Senator position was won by Gonzalo Palafox ’25. Palafox ran against Natalie Ramirez ’23 both received 50 percent of the vote totaling to four votes each, according to the report.
The Representative to Brandeis Sustainability Fund (BSF) Board was won by Jacqueline Wang ’23. Wang won, running unopposed and received 287 of the 359 votes.
Allocations Board Member, which is a three-semester position, was won by Emma Fiesinger ’23. Fiesinger ran unopposed and won with 77.52 percent of the vote.
For the Judiciary, five seats were open for the Associate Justice Position. Matt Shapiro ’23, Jonei Ettricks ’23, Eammon Golden ’22, Gabby Grunfeld ’23 and Sidy Kante ’25 won the five seats. The five students ran unopposed, Shapiro received the largest percent of the vote with 19.52 percent of the vote.
In the email, Student Union Secretary James Feng ‘22 wrote that for those who did not get elected in these elections there are still opportunities for students to get involved in the Student Union. Feng included that the special elections would be held in two weeks, marking the Student Unions second round of elections for this semester.
Positions that were open but were not voted on include: Ziv and Ridgewood Senator (one seat), Charles River Senator (one seat), Foster Mods Senator (one seat), Off-Campus Senator (one seat, open to off-campus residents), Junior Representative to the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee (one seat, open to Class of 2023), Allocations Board Member for a one-year seat (two seats, open to entire student body) and Allocations Board Member for Racial Minority Students to a one-year seat (one seat, open to racial minority identifying students), according to the Round 1 Election Packet 2021 document.
