By Serin Sarsour and Kate Dempsey
Carrie Ebbin and Huda Ayaz won Brooklyn College’s Undergraduate Student Government’s election as president and vice president. After winning by a landslide with record-high voter turnout from undergraduate students, the pair is eager to begin their duties on July 1.
Last year’s uncontested USG election saw a low voter turnout in which Ebbin won vice president alongside partner and current USG president Aharon Grama. Ebbin was happy to see the numbers turn around this year, reaching her personal goal of obtaining more than 10% of the undergraduate student body casting ballots.
“I think it’s a big testament to how hard the student government and student leaders have worked on campus this year to increase student engagement and student involvement on campus after the pandemic. So that’s really exciting,” Ebbin told The Vanguard.
Although she was not originally interested in politics, Ebbin wanted to work on the communications between BC’s student government and student body. After this past year as USG vice president, however, she has realized her passion for advocacy and moving out of her comfort zone, deeper into politics.
As for Ayaz, who is the current USG’s club director, she was looking forward to getting involved on campus right away after the COVID-19 pandemic forced everyone to stay home for so long. Before running for USG, Ayaz attended a variety of club meetings and was inspired by USG’s initiatives to make a difference on campus, which made her realize her calling.
“[…] Brooklyn College has so many commuters, it’s hard to get people involved in stuff. But sometimes they really just don’t know that these types of things exist. So we really did learn a lot about our student body as well while we went through the entire campaigning process, and we’re hoping to apply that when we start next semester,” said Ayaz.
Entering the campaigning process, Ebbin and Ayaz had three main goals set in their minds. The first, advocating for students on campus, followed by creating more campus events where “people want to be,” explained Ayaz.
“One of the things that especially we’ve been looking into has been things like the Boylan Cafeteria, or just food in general. There aren’t a lot of great options, so that’s one of our priorities,” Ayaz told The Vanguard, highlighting the importance of the feedback USG receives from students and being open and accessible to all students.
Ebbin and Ayaz also noted that USG hopes to keep the momentum of the fun events they held this year going for next year, such as “Rage Against Midterms” and the Comedy Night with comedian Bassem Youssef. Helping individual clubs find their own communities on campus and hosting their own events is another goal as president and vice president.
The two incumbents are currently sophomores at BC, with Ebbin majoring in business administration with a concentration in marketing, and Ayaz on a pre-med track and multimedia computing major.
In her current role as USG club director, Ayaz assists new clubs with the constitution writing process, and with any club issues that happen to come up throughout the year, among other duties. During her free time, you can find her reading, writing, playing video games, or creating art.
Outside of school and her USG duties, Ebbin’s interest in marketing has led her to do social media management for several different businesses. Ebbin, whose parents were USG president and vice president during their time at Brooklyn College, said that being president is a “little bit in [her] blood,” echoing that she is honored to be helping the student body.
“I’m really grateful to have the opportunity. Student government really helped me when I first came to campus […] so I wanted to kind of pay that forward,” she said.
To the dynamic duo, this is just the beginning of their work to provide BC students with an inclusive experience with the workings of USG, highlighting that all students are welcome to attend their open meetings.
“One of our goals is to make sure that USG is open to all students, but a lot of people don’t know what exists or don’t know how to get involved,” said Ayaz. “One of our priorities is to make sure that it is as open as possible for students to participate and know how they can do so.”
Ebbin and Ayaz noted that for them, their differences are what makes their team stronger, and students can lookout for their pairing having bloomed a partnership that will make a positive impact on the school.
“We have a lot of similarities and a lot of differences that are gonna make us a really strong team,” said Ebbin. “We know each other well, and I’m excited to keep getting to know each other as we do this together.”