With the Boston University Student Government elections fast approaching, the BUnited slate is ready to begin their term as the next StuGov Executive Board, said Student Body President-nominee Nyah Jordan, a junior in the College of Communication.
“To care, to be passionate about what we’re doing, to commit as much time as you do to student government,” Jordan said, “I think that shows that this team is not only qualified but extremely excited about what we’re doing.”
Besides Jordan, who currently serves as vice president of Internal Affairs, the BUnited slate includes College of Arts and Sciences junior Hessann Farooqi for vice president, CAS junior Shahaf Dan for VP of finances and COM junior Aimee Mein for VP of internal affairs.
Current Student Body President Oliver Pour ran last year with the OneBU slate and has spent his presidency in an unprecedented global pandemic. He said the duties of the student body president are difficult but important.
“The role of presidents is ever-changing,” he said. “It’s a role that you always got to be on top of the work of course and on top of what the school needs in that given moment.”
He noted the differing circumstances and challenges that each president encounters over the course of their term.
“What I face as president is different than what the last president will face,” Pour said, “but it will also be different than what the next president will face.”
For Dan, the slate’s message comes from the platform’s name, which he said emphasizes unity in an uncertain time.
“We’re going to get out of COVID sooner or later, so we really want to make sure that we get off strong next year,” he said. “That means helping transfer students, helping any incoming freshmen, just helping any community within our community of BU.”
BUnited is the only slate running for executive board this year, following a record-breaking five slates last year. However, Student Election Commission Co-Chair Daniel Daponte, a junior in CAS, said this doesn’t mean the election is any less important for students across BU.
“This year, there just isn’t a lot of momentum and it’s been hard to generate interest,” Daponte said. “It’s not unprecedented to have one slate, but we also run Senate at-large elections, and those have multiple parties which vie for 10 seats in the BU Student Government Senate.”
BUnited’s platform covers three main topics: Uniting Health, Uniting Justice and Uniting Community.
“I’m especially excited about our Uniting Justice section,” Jordan said, “just because I think we’re touching on things that e-boards haven’t really dove into before.”
The future executive board said they intend to bring peer therapy programs, an annual social justice fundraiser as well as local business financial support to BU. Jordan said she believes the fundraiser is a particularly important addition.
“I think that’s something that should be implemented in Student Government,” she said. “I don’t think we should wait until a particularly brutal injustice happens when we do something like that.”
To create a more just BU, the slate’s platform states they will promote LGBTQ+ administrative representation and local Black, indigenous, people of color-owned businesses, as well as include voter registration at freshman orientation.
Farooqi, who ran under the ConnectBU slate last year and is a current StuGov senator, said it is the executive board’s duty to be in active conversation with administration and seek accountability and concrete action from the University.
“Our role in those meetings is to make sure that we are holding them accountable, holding their feet to the fire about the policy areas that we really want to see change on,” he said, “because I appreciate statements, but we really need to see tangible improvements to people’s lives.”
To promote healthy practices, the group’s main objectives include a sexual health vending machine, more workout and individual spaces in East Campus and a collaboration with sexual assault prevention organizations on campus to meet their demands for the University.
Mein said the slate is ready to pick up where this year’s executive board left off in terms of involvement and representation of the student body.
“The fact that [Jordan] is already on the current e-board allows us to continue the work that’s been happening this past year,” she said, “which I think is a really special and unique situation.”
Jordan said the group’s objectives are concrete, achievable and not simply idealistic.
“When we wrote this platform, it wasn’t just an idea in mind,” she said. “We thought about the logistics of it. So everything in here just has a detailed plan behind it, and this is also not even the end of what we want to do.”
A virtual town hall will be held to allow the student body to meet the candidates March 15 at 7 p.m. The election will take place March 22 to 25 and the ballots will be collected through the Student Link.
Nyah Jordan is a former Campus Associate Editor for The Daily Free Press. She was not involved in the editing of this article.
