SGA elects new senate for upcoming academic year

From left to right: Upperclassmen Senator Riya Belani, Greek Student Organization Senator Bailey Pradhan and Academic Student Organization Senator Noora Roushdy are three new elects to the Student Government Association Senate for the upcoming academic year. EMILY PARIS, Staff Photographer

Students lined up in front of the black tent designated for the Student Government Association (SGA) to talk to candidates running in the Senate Election that took place April 18 to 20. The SGA “Election Bash” April 18 offered a chance for the student body to learn about their potential representatives for the next academic year — all while receiving free burgers and SGA merchandise in the process. 

The winners of the SGA Senate Election for the academic year of 2022-23 include: 

Daniella Benabou as the Argyros Senator, Sydney Pfeiffer-Picard as the Attallah Senator, Rachel Berns as the Crean Senator, Tiffany Le as the Fowler Senator, Nicole Drew as the Wilkinson Senator, Benjamin Persons as the Schmid Senator, Lauren Bramlett as the College of Performing Arts Senator, Adi Takei as the Dodge Senator, Misty Vu as the School of Pharmacy Senator, Riya Belani as the Upperclassmen Senator, Noora Roushdy as the Academic Student Organization Senator and Bailey Pradhan as the Greek Student Organization Senator. 

Of the 12 positions, eight positions only featured one candidate. 

Clarisse Bonang, a senior computer science major, attended the Election Bash but was only familiar with Le, the candidate running for her own college. Her awareness of the election and event came from promotional advertising on the SGA Instagram. 

“I was definitely incentivized to vote due to the marketing strategy with the free burgers and the tote bags,” Bonang said. “I only knew about Tiffany (Le), Fowler’s Senator — I didn’t know anyone else but most only had one candidate.”

Le was one of the four candidates who did not run unopposed, and she was challenged by Daisy Fernandez-Reyes. Bonang said her awareness of Le came from the latter’s involvement in Fowler and on Slack and supposes that most students tend to only have knowledge of candidates within their major or bubble. 

“(Le) has clearly been working very hard for Fowler,” Bonang said. 

Noora Roushdy, a junior psychology major who ran for the position of academic student organization senator, was thankful for the experience of running unopposed. 

“If I was running opposed, it would just be incredibly stressful, so I'm glad I had the opportunity to run unopposed, (as) it made campaigning more fun and interactive versus more competitive,” Roushdy said. “I was able to talk to a lot more people individually (and) in person — it’s almost less personable to do everything virtually, which you would have to do if you were running opposed.”

Nicole Drew, a junior political science and philosophy double major, has wanted to get involved in SGA since her freshman year and took the opportunity to represent Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences this year after having previously run for the position of leisure senator. 

“I want to focus on really engaging with the student body and Wilkinson in shaping my initiatives around what people actually want to see changed in Wilkinson and in Chapman as a whole,” Drew said. “It’s really important to me to engage with my constituents and make sure I’m getting things done that they want to see changed.”

Bailey Pradhan, a sophomore economics major and the new Greek Student Organization Senator, intends to draw from her experience as philanthropy chair for her sorority, Kappa Alpha Theta (Theta), in navigating her new position. 

“Through my position in Theta, I’ve been working a lot with other chapters and (have) been wanting to get more events on campus and a lot more community involvement,” Pradhan said. “I wanted to be able to get involved with the bigger picture of everything.”

Roushdy believes it is important to engage in the Chapman community in whatever way one can.

“I think part of the Chapman experience is getting involved on campus,” Roushdy said. “It gets really important to be a part of your community and try to give back as much as possible and to just have fun with whatever you’re doing.”