By Gabriela Flores
The University Student Senate recently elected most members of its new Steering Committee, a group that leads CUNY’s student government representatives. Eight of 10 seats were filled on Sunday, Oct. 2, with two up for a run-off election. Two Brooklyn College Undergraduate Student Government delegates won their respective races, with Jonathan Colon winning Vice Chair for Fiscal Affairs and Aharon Grama elected as Vice Chair for Senior College Affairs.
“I think we have a very good Steering Committee this year. A lot of people who want to make a change, and I’m just happy to be able to work with them,” Colon told the Vanguard.
This year’s election happened two weeks after nominations were held on Sunday, Sept. 18. Salimatou Doumbouya from City Tech was reelected as USS chairperson after running uncontested. City Tech’s Frank Lachapelle was elected as Vice Chair for Legislative Affairs, USS’s second-in-command position, against two other nominees. As BC’s representatives settle into their new positions, they intend to address several concerns alongside their newly-elected colleagues, including the ongoing student enrollment and retention declines.
Brooklyn College’s current total fall enrollment is 11% lower than in 2021, according to the Institutional Research and Data Science webpage. Within the college’s USG, Grama, Colon, and their colleagues have pitched to administrators how to better recruit potential students to enroll.
“I think that the best people to increase enrollment are actually the students,” said Grama, noting that a student representative could share their campus experiences to foster a better connection for recruitment. “Some administrators can be out of touch, and we want to help.”
Grama hopes to propose similar recruitment techniques to his USS colleagues to improve the university’s enrollment overall. While in his new role in the senate’s fiscal affairs, Colon aims to highlight and propose new career-center programs that could aid students with obtaining their respective work goals.
“A lot of students, they want to get paid good money, they want to work at quality places,” said Colon, noting the benefits of career-centered programs like CUNY Futures in Finance. “I believe the creation of programs like this could benefit students, and the awareness of them could possibly improve enrollment as well.”
Though Colon and Grama will each have their own respective responsibilities with their new titles, they will each advocate for students university-wide. Colon intends to review in depth the budgets of CUNY’s student governments, USS’s own fiscal records, and other figures that illustrate student needs. With his background and experience in finance, Colon hopes to lessen the financial burdens of students in need from his new Steering seat, including through the senate’s scholarship program.
“A lot of students are suffering – we’re here to represent the students. Whenever there’s a problem in the budget, that trickles down to the students,” Colon said. He also intends to be more transparent about USS’s fiscal records with his peers and student media.
After serving in USS for three years, first as Vice Chair for Technology Fee Affairs, Grama intends to propose changes within the senate’s structure and constitution to improve how it functions, address student concerns across campuses, and better the student senate’s communication with CUNY administrators like Chancellor Félix Matos Rodríguez.
“My hope is that throughout this year, I’ll be able to make meaningful changes that would impact student governments at all CUNYs,” said Grama. In the past year, for instance, Grama and his USG colleagues have raised the minimum amount of student activity funds that clubs are allowed to spend without waiting months for BC administrators to approve their requests. By addressing similar issues CUNY-wide, he hopes to bring back the student senate’s direct contact with university administrators.
“[…] It felt like it wasn’t administration versus student, it was an administration working with students,” said Grama.
As the Brooklyn College duo settle into their new USS roles, they look forward to generating fundamental changes and bettering student experiences with their fellow senate members.
“I hope we get things done,” said Colon. “And I hope we set a new tone for the next 50 years that students are effective, that we not fight with each other, but that we fight for our students and the people that we represent.”