Vote in Next Week’s Student Elections

To
All Students
From
Abel Liu, Student Council President; Omika Suryawanshi, University Board of Elections Chair

Fellow Students,

We hope that you have had a great start to your school year. Our names are Abel Liu and Omika Suryawanshi, 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 next 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. If you are interested in running for any of the available positions, please register your candidacy using this link.

Here are some important dates for the New Student Elections:

September 27th: Deadline to register candidacy, campaigning begins
September 28th: Deadline to edit candidate bio
October 1st: Voting begins
October 3rd: Voting & campaigning ends (results announced 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, uvavote.com, and any questions can be directed to the Chair of UBE, Omika Suryawanshi, 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].

Yours,

Abel Liu, Student Council President

Omika Suryawanshi, University Board of Elections Chair