Run for New Student Elections

Fellow Students,

We hope that you have had a great start to your school year. Our names are Ceci Cain and Luke Lamberson, and we serve as the President of Student Council and the Chair of the University Board of Elections, respectively. By now, you’ve probably heard a lot about student self-governance at the University. Whether you love what you have heard, or hate it, we all own our student institutions. And one of the best ways to steward and shape modern student self-governance is to get involved in University elections. This is an opportunity to voice your opinions and advocate for the changes you hope to see at the University.

Beginning this week, the New Student Elections for three First-Year Representatives, one Transfer Student Representative, and both a Graduate and Undergraduate International Student Representative to Student Council will be underway, as well as elections for First-Year Council President and First-Year Council Vice President. The First-Year Council President additionally automatically serves as a representative in the Student Council Representative Body during their term. In order to run for FYC President or Vice President, you must have won a position on the Residential Leadership Experience (RLE) first-year council. 

If you are interested in running for any of the available positions, please be on the lookout for an email from the University Board of Elections via "Big Pulse" which will contain a secure link to be used to register candidacy.

Here are some important dates for the New Student Elections:

September 29th: Deadline to register candidacy
September 30th: Deadline to edit candidate bio
October 5th: Campaigning begins
October 10th: Voting begins
October 12th: Voting & campaigning ends (results announced at 5 p.m.)

Student Council (StudCo) is the student governing body, leveraging the bargaining power of all 25,000 students at the University in policy negotiations and lobbying as well as direct resource distribution. First-Year Council, or FYC, focuses on events and programming to promote unity and social cohesion among the first-year class.

Your elected officials, from StudCo, FYC, or both, will be integral in shaping the experiences of the student body. We are excited to watch you participate in your first formal exercise of student self-governance. Further, we encourage you all to participate in both the Fall New Student Elections and the Spring University-Wide Elections.

More information about elections can be found at the University Board of Elections (UBE) website and any questions can be directed to the Chair of UBE, Luke Lamberson, at [email protected]. If you would like more information about StudCo, this can be found at uvastudco.com. Any questions about the position of StudCo Representative can be directed to the Chair of the Representative Body, Gabriela Hernandez, at [email protected].

All the best,

Luke Lamberson, University Board of Elections Chair
Ceci Cain, Student Council President