As USG’s new administration settles into office and focuses on how Brooklyn College will transition back on campus, President Aharon Grama and Vice-President Iqura Naheed instated a new Executive Cabinet. Though members were officiated under Grama’s first executive order signed on July 1, the cohort was formed well before then.
“When you’re running for president and vice-president, you kind of want to know who your team is going to be, and then they can have you with the campaign process,” Naheed told The Vanguard, stating that USG’s current Cabinet members were recruited before she and Grama made their bid for the presidency. “And you can work together to build your goals and what you want to do in your term in office.”
Those appointed did not all previously serve as USG Senators. Many are BC students with limited or no prior experience working in the organization. The decision to have a mix of the two came from Grama and Naheed’s aim to include different inputs in USG deliberations.
“The people who are within USG are great because they understand how meetings function, how things will go forward, and they can help everyone else when we’re not around,” Naheed explained. “And then the non-USG members can bring new ideas because they haven’t been in the USG organization for a long time, so they have a fresher perspective of what we could change or what we could do better.”
The USG Cabinet comprises a secretary, liaison, and five executive heads: Chief-Of-Staff, Treasurer, Press Director, Club Director, and Student Advocate. Each member, Naheed noted, was appointed based on their strengths and has remained consistently on top of their prospective duties. As the fall semester approaches, they collectively intend to ensure that the fall’s campus return plan is made clearer to students. They also plan on hosting in-person events in accordance with COVID safety guidelines, holding town halls, and informing clubs about the different ways they can connect with the student body. In doing so, they hope that more students will be encouraged to reach out to USG.
“The Cabinet so far has been really impressive,” Naheed said. “We want to be very open to students so they can reach directly out to us and tell us what they want changed or what is an important issue to them.”