Welcome to the Baruch College election season! Voting for the Undergraduate Student Government elections occurs from April 24 to April 26. The winning candidates will hold their elected positions for the 2023-2024 academic year.

Students will vote via a Qualtrics survey.

It will be available online at the Student Government Elections webpage of the Office of Student Affairs’ website, starting at 9 a.m. on April 24 and ending at noon on April 26.

The unofficial results will be released on April 26 by 7 p.m. Student Life will announce the official results during the spring fling on April 27 and in its weekly newsletter on April 28.

DIVE, which stands for “Dynamically Inspiring and Vividly Empowering,” is the only party running.

Another team titled A.C.T., which stands for “Act, Change, Truth,” ran at the start of the campaign season on March 30. However, it dropped out of the race during spring break.

Candidates informed The Ticker that they withdrew from A.C.T.

However, the Office of Student Life told The Ticker that some A.C.T. candidates will still appear on the ballot because OSL has not received notice of their withdrawal in writing, as of April 20.

Some of A.C.T.’s former members are now running as independents. They are as follows: Kayla Aaron, Avrohom Malachowski, Joseph Hernandez, Makkedah Ramsey, Dave Olajide, Brianna Augustin and Zain Shazad.

After the campaign season began, Olajide and junior Spirit Smith-Matos wanted to join DIVE. They campaigned alongside DIVE, including representing the party during an interview with The Ticker and at its debate event on April 17.

However, the Student Elections Review Committee did not approve their request to join DIVE.  Olajide is thus now running as an independent. However, DIVE’s Instagram post on April 20 presents Olajide as one of their candidates for vice president of campus affairs.

The guidelines do not prohibit parties or independents from campaigning together.

Smith-Matos is no longer running.

The other independent candidates are Herman Kamal and Samantha Quervalu.

Independents

Malachowski is running for secretary. He is also running for University Student Senate representative, a position he currently fills.

Hernandez, a junior majoring in operations management, is running for vice president of legislative affairs.

He is running again for University Student Senate Representative, a position he currently holds

He is also the current chair of philanthropy. In the past, he has served as vice-chair of campus affairs and vice-chair of legislative affairs.

Olajide, a sophomore majoring in psychology, is running for vice president of campus affairs.

He is the current vice-chair for the legislative affairs committee and a member of the academic affairs, philanthropy and appeals committee.

Ramsey, a junior majoring in English, is running for vice president of student affairs. Her and Olajide are currently on the Board of Directors of the Auxiliary Enterprises Corporation.

Political science major Augustin, finance major Shazad and Kamal are running for representative senator.

Aaron, a sophomore majoring in public affairs, is running for University Student Senate alternate representative. She is a current University Student Senate alternate delegate.

“I want to continue advocating for Baruch students’ needs,” Aaron said in a statement to The Ticker. “I believe that it is important to invest in our technology infrastructure such as Wi-Fi on campus and loaner devices. I want to continue to advocate for all students to have access to food and space on campus.”

Samantha Quervalu, a first-year student majoring in psychology, is running for the athletic board.

Dynamically Inspiring and Vividly Empowering

DIVE’s executive board includes Jessica Yauri, a junior majoring in I/O psychology; Abdullah Mahdi, a junior majoring in operations management and consulting; Karen Guanga, a junior majoring in computer information systems; and Adriana Cuca, a junior double-majoring in political science and Spanish.

They are running for president, executive vice president, treasurer and secretary, respectively. The team is composed of 41 candidates with diverse backgrounds and aspirations, according to DIVE.

In an interview with The Ticker, DIVE said it has three core values: communication, integrity and community.

DIVE said it wants to help newly chartered clubs by developing an internal support system.

“[USG] charter the clubs, and then that’s it,” Yauri said. “You don’t really hear back from them. You’re like, okay, best of luck … I think a lot of clubs die out because of that.”

To combat this, DIVE said it plans to create a how-to guide that explains the necessary processes regarding executive boards and committees, budgets  event planning.

“There are over 100 clubs, and there are only so many advisors in the Student Life office,” Mahdi said. “I think for us as USG, we can really be there for the clubs by pointing to the resources and having consistent check-ins.”

DIVE said it would re-imagine USG’s annual survival guide, an information-packed book given to students at the beginning of the academic year, to be more easily digestible.

“Student behaviors are changing, and it’s not like everyone has time to just be flipping through a 100-page book to see all the resources,” he said, citing shortened attention spans.

DIVE also plans to host town halls and leave out suggestion boxes to gather student opinions.

For example, USG usually references previous years when deciding which events to host.

However, Mahdi said he wants to ensure these events are what the student body wants.

“Because that would be true representation, right?” Mahdi said. “If we collect student input and throw events and initiatives based on that.”

DIVE said it also wants to improve students’ relationships with the administration and faculty. This entails ensuring that progress is made in campus space and expansion.

Mahdi spearheaded the team.

Approximately half of DIVE’s candidates — 19 out of 41 — are currently involved in USG in various capacities. If elected, there would be eight returning table members.

However, DIVE said it is bringing a variety of student leaders, citing student-athletes, T.E.A.M. Baruch students and Books & Beyond President Jessica Angamarca, who is running to become a representative senator.

Some people have criticized USG as having a cliquey nature. However, DIVE said its friendships are a natural result of spending a lot of time together.

“We all become friends … we are seeing each other 24/7, like we stay until 8 o’clock every day,” Guanga said. “So it just comes off that way.”

Guanga mentioned they often go “club-hopping,” mingling with students at club events on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

DIVE emphasized it will be open to hearing perspectives of students.