USG elections guide: Parties AURA and WAVE on the ballot

By Sonia Kalo, Editor in Chief

Bearcats will soon vote for their next Undergraduate Student Government representatives beginning April 20 at 9 a.m., with voting ending on April 22 at 12 p.m. The unofficial election results come out on April 22 by 7 p.m. and the official results will be announced on April 23.

This year there are two parties – AURA and WAVE. This is the second consecutive year with a two party election. There are 15 representative senator seats and both parties have 12-15 candidates that are running, which means that the elected table has a chance to be mixed.

AURA

AURA is running a campaign focused on bringing a new and diverse group of leaders to USG. Although some candidates serve in the current student government, the party hopes to differentiate themselves and bring about changes through leadership style.

For the party, “AURA” stands for: Achieve. Unite. Represent. Aspire. Along with the slang meaning, the party chose its name based on its latin origins.

“Aura is a latin word that stems from the atmosphere that runs and influences people in a positive manner,” Laia De La Cruz, AURA’s candidate for president told The Ticker. “This is not just something that you do after hours and stuff, like, this is a lot of hours that could be allocated for your own free time or your own personal opportunities, but you’re investing in something greater than yourself,” De La Cruz said. “And that’s why we found the acronym, Achieve, Unite, Represent, Aspire, because we set goals, and then we set a plan to achieve those goals.” AURA advocates for transparent communication.

“I believe that the biggest thing is transparency and communication. USG should be an open book for all students and all club leaders around campus,” AURA’s candidate for Treasurer, Justin Salas, told The Ticker.

He added, “If you don’t uplift the club leaders, then that doesn’t trickle down to the clubs, that doesn’t trickle down to the student body. At the end of the day, we are here to represent the student body.”

AURA’s Candidates:

Laia De La Cruz — President

Justin Tejeda — Executive Vice President

Justin Salas — Treasurer

Destiny Valdes — Secretary

Riyaad Ali — Vice President of Academic Affairs

Ilyass Hamama — Vice President of Campus Affairs

Selena Mei — Vice President of Legislative Affairs

Melany Rodriguez — Vice President of Student Affairs

Khazratjon “Khaz” Amonov — Representative Senator

Justin Brown — Representative Senator

Arelys Burgos — Representative Senator

Youssif Fayez — Representative Senator

Lucas Feliciano — Representative Senator

Jaysen Guevara – Representative Senator

D’Angelo Herrera — Representative Senator

Jemil Lawal — Representative Senator

Luis Morales Representative Senator

Sabina Musinova — Representative Senator

Melany Salcedo — Representative Senator

Tenzin Tsephel — Representative Senator

Syed Muhammad A. Hashmi — University Student Senate Representative

Huzaifa Khokhar — University Student Senate Representative

Edgar Flores Jaimez — University Student Senate Alternate Representative

Mahi Uddin — Athletic Board

Serigne Khadim Diaw — Board of Directors

John Lim — Board of Directors

Axel Pared — Board of Directors

Isabella Alexander-Fobbs — Communications Board

Olamide Ajao — Faculty/Student Disciplinary Committee

David Arias — Faculty/Student Disciplinary Committee

Zury Ortiz-Hernandez — Faculty/Student Disciplinary Committee

Mohammed Zaman — Faculty/Student Disciplinary Committee

Xavier Langumas — Health Advisory Board

Diany Diaz — Student Center Board

Lisbeth Victoriano — Student Center Board

Awa Synian — Student Media Council

Aaliyah Valdes — Student Media Council

Neil Gupta — Student Programming Board

John Ponce — Student Programming Board

AURA has campaigned on Instagram @aura4baruch and tabled on the second floor of the William and Anita Newman Vertical campus.

WAVE

“WAVE” stands for: Work backed by record; Accountable leadership; Voice that matters; Empowered student future.

“Worked backed by record” refers to the experience that WAVE’s party has in current USG leadership positions and other club leadership positions. WAVE focuses on maintaining the work that the current USG has done and is working on, bringing their experiences from some of their current USG roles.

“We are a team that is not starting from scratch,” Sanila Rahman, WAVE’s candidate for president, told The Ticker. “We have been doing the work that USG does, doing the work in terms of leadership for a very long time, we have that experience, so we’re sort of trying to build on what we have already started.”

“We are all here motivated by one goal, to make our Baruch campus more lively for the students because it’s a commuter school,” Latifa Abdraimova, WAVE’s candidate for chair of graphics, told The Ticker. “It can be draining to just go from school to work, and then just not have this community. So we are here to empower students to make them believe that they can find their own community.”

Abdraimova added that WAVE wants students to vote based on how the current USG leadership has been so far and the potential they see in them.

“For every single member at WAVE, we are very big on transparency and also very open to constructive criticism,” Rahman told The Ticker. “I know that it might be difficult for a lot of us sometimes to be able to address things that students bring up, but that’s the strength of WAVE that if there is something that students want us to do differently, we are there to hear it and we are actually going to work on it.”

WAVE’S Candidates:

Sanila Rahman — President

Cristal Garcia — Executive Vice President

Erick Garcia — Treasurer

Michelle Martinez — Secretary

Verna Chen — Vice President of Academic Affairs

John Chavez — Vice President of Campus Affairs

Kohla Rathore — Vice President of Legislative Affairs

Amelia Carbajal — Vice President of Student Affairs

Latifa Abdraimova — Representative Senator

Isra Baluch — Representative Senator

Christian Champagne — Representative Senator

Gael Cuautle-Suarez — Representative Senator

Shejda Doci Dema — Representative Senator

Heidy Garcia — Representative Senator

Shaz Lucien — Representative Senator

Shereika Nelson — Representative Senator

Alexis Pani — Representative Senator

Anabel Pesantez — Representative Senator

Yuvraj Ranganadan – Representative Senator

Rachel Reina — Representative Senator

Lisbeth Tavarez Santana — Representative Senator

Allen Tiban — Representative Senator

Fiona Wang — Representative Senator

Yuvraj Ranganadan — University Student Senate Representative

Hannah Ching — University Student Senate Representative

Allen Tiban — University Student Senate Alternate Representative

Sajeel Kahn — Athletic Board

Gabriel Liang — Athletic Board

Justin Manuel Tejada — Athletic Board

Kathamoni Saha — Auxiliary Enterprises

Priere Antonio — Board of Directors

Hannah Ching — Board of Directors

Selena Magdaleno — Board of Directors

Ceyda Ozdemir — Communications Board

Ibtisama Siddiquey — Communications Board

Yasmine Bergha — Faculty/Student Disciplinary Committee

David Tellez — Faculty/Student Disciplinary Committee

Zarin Rafa — Health Advisory Board

ZiXiang Lin — Student Building Fund

Kimberley Valdez — Student Building Fund

Ruben Torres — Student Center Board

Mila Hossain — Student Media Council

Felix Padilla — Student Media Council

Saika Chowdhury — Student Programming Board

Jasmin Delgado — Student Programming Board

Tania Rahoumi — Student Programming Board

The full list of candidates is available on the Office of Student Life’s website.

WAVE has campaigned on Instagram @wave4baruch and has tabled on the second floor of the William and Anita Newman Vertical campus.

INDEPENDENTS

Sarrah Khan – Student Building Fund

Sarrah Khan did not respond to The Ticker’s request for comment.

Students can access the Office of Student Life election website at https://studentaffairs.baruch.cuny.edu/studentlife/student-activities/student-government-election/.