Baruch College’s Undergraduate Student Government elections will be taking place from April 21 through April 28, with voting conducted fully online. This comes as the COVID-19, or novel coronavirus, health crisis has led to the cancellation of extracurricular events and physical classes throughout the United States.
With only one major party running this year, Roaring Baruch stands to sweep the ballot with ease. “Passion, Action, Wit, We’re It,” is the slogan that to them epitomizes the party’s message. The Ticker had the opportunity to interview most of the party members and compile a voting guide for the 2020 USG elections.
The Executive Board:
Tony Chen is running for President: Tony Chen is currently USG’s VP of student affairs.
Briana Staten is running for Executive Vice President: Briana Staten is currently the VP of academic affairs for USG.
Genesis Calle is running for Executive Secretary: Genesis Calle is currently USG’s chair of philanthropy.
Nancy Sea is running for Executive Treasurer: Nancy Sea is currently a USG bursar that works under the current treasurer.
THE COVID19-Virus and How it has Affected Campaigning:
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about the completely digital USG election, the first of its kind. This has put a stop to all possible in-person campaigning, with the party having to get creative with digital marketing.
Using Facebooks posts, Instagram and memes, the party hopes to keep students informed on its platform.
“The coronavirus definitely affected our in-person campaigning,” Chen said.
As soon as there were hints that the university was going to close, Chen said that they pivoted to focusing on social media efforts.
Turning to Christine Gajdos, who is running for chair of marketing, they created a plan. One such effort is Instagram Live, with candidates going on to voice their messages.
“We have been definitely doing as much as we can with our marketing campaigns and social media,” Calle said.
The Office of Student Life has also extended the opportunity that the party has to campaign up to April 28, which is now the last day of voting.
“We definitely now have more time to get out there and connect with Baruch students, the chance that we wouldn’t have had if we only had the three weeks of campaigning,” Calle expressed.
Part of the online marketing materials are videos of the running candidates.
“Everyone should keep their eyes out for candidates’ videos. OSL has asked us to each record a video stating who we are, what we are running for our platforms and our values so it’s best to keep an eye out for that,” Sea explained.
To prepare students for the new voting procedure, an email was sent from OSL. Students were given the ability to review the candidate’s information and photos prior to voting on the elections website.
The instructions prompted voters to ensure they are prepared to cast their vote prior to voting as they may only access/submit the ballot once.
The voting is to be completed via MyBaruch via an account and can be created with Baruch credentials.
The Parties Core Values Broken Down:
Action
To Chen, when their table puts their mind to it, they are going to get the job done.
“Our actions will speak louder than our words. Often, we hear ‘let’s make a difference’ and ‘we are fighting for a change,’ but what have the people that always speak these words ever done for you? We focus on creating a ‘speak less and show more’ community where we truly represent your interests and advocate in every possible way to reach our goals,” their platform reads.
In order to get things done, a relationship with administration is key, according to Chen. In their plans, they hope to establish connections between their members and the respective administrators.
Passion
Each member of the party has presented themselves as involved and passionate people all working toward the same goal: making Baruch a better place.
In informing the party, the Executive Board asked every member to submit two initiatives that they wanted to accomplish over the next two semesters. This request was a necessary thing, Calle believes. She said that this helped to show direction and a “clear goal” for the next semester.
Wit
“Wit is defined as inventiveness and mental sharpness; keen intelligence. Our team has a standard in these traits and plans to use them to run for Undergraduate Student Government this year,” explained their platform.
By gathering a group of diverse people with equally diverse perspectives, Roaring Baruch believes that it has found a form of “wit.” It’s not only a collaboration between themselves, but the Baruch community a whole.
“We take pride that our team all have something to bring to the table. We are all very different and we all represent very diverse backgrounds and ways of thinking,” Calle said.
The slogan that Roaring Baruch chose — “Passion, Action, Wit, We’re It” — was carefully decided upon.
“We had a Google form for all of our team originally running with us. They all put in what different words they wanted and then everyone voted on them and those were the top three,” Staten explained.
It’s a new decade and they want to treat it much like the roaring twenties of the early 1900’s. Even their graphics and marketing materials have elements of the 1920’s with an art deco look and feel.
“We are entering a fresh, new decade: 2020. Our team, Roaring Baruch, has taken a blast from the past; the Roaring 20s,” explained their platform documents.
The Improvements and Changes From this Year to Next:
They have listed on their platform a few of their “passion projects,” to implement next year and improve the quality of student life:
• Creating workshops related to learning how to read tax documents for tax season — a financial literacy overview.
• More mental health workshops and increased support for the counseling center. • Advocating for transfer student acclimation.
• “USG Takes Care” where senators along with the student body make care packages to donate to organizations.
• Spreading awareness of CUNY funding issues and advocating for increased funding.
COVID-19 Concerns:
While much is unknown, the current USG is still working while practicing social distancing.
Meetings are still occurring between its members and information is still being collected; work is still being done. Whether or not the fall semester happens in-person next year, these candidates believe they are ready and able to address and handle any obstacles ahead.
Preparations have been thought over, if elected. The table is ready to start as soon as possible, with their transition period to occur from the day they are elected until July 21, when they officially assume their roles.
“We need to start in July, if we are elected, to make sure that students’ concerns are still being heard,” Staten said.
To Summarize:
Roaring Baruch hopes to continue to close the gap between students and USG. This will come in a variety of ways from meetings to workshops.
With an ambitious undertaking of 38 initiatives, the party has quite a lot of work cut out for them if elected. The goal of the party is to have the Bearcat community realize that they are present as a resource for everyone.
Students can only vote using their baruchmail.cuny.edu account with one vote per student and each student will receive a unique code.
