Power of the People, or POP! won all executive board positions as well as a majority of all senate positions following the conclusion of Baruch College’s Undergraduate Student Government elections on April 18. The unofficial results tallied 1,222 votes cast by the student population.
USG’s new e-board consists of President-elect Dakshatha Daggala, Executive Vice President-elect Joshua Castillo, Treasurer-elect Tam Phuong, and Executive Secretary-elect Nicole Pung. The results of the election favored the POP! ticket, though Imagine Baruch did win four representative senator seats and many seats on different boards.
As it stands in the unofficial results, POP! candidates swept the majority of the senate positions. Daggala received 622 votes compared to Imagine Baruch presidential candidate’s Jeremy Berman’s 555 votes. Castillo captured 665 and his Imagine opponent Larry Likhtenstein took 498. Phuong earned 611 votes, while his Imagine opponent Dushyant Saxena totaled 543 votes. Pung took 631 votes compared to Imagine candidate Sam Abrole’s 421 votes and independent candidate Darcelle Demesyeux getting 116 total votes. These numbers may change when the official results are released.
Many of the positions were very closely contested and were won by very thin margins.
Notably the presidential race was won by only 67 votes, according to unofficial results. In addition, a 13 vote difference decided the position of vice president of Campus Affairs, which landed in favor of POP! candidate Robert Da Rita.
Current President Radhika Kalani, Executive Vice President Emma Jorgensen and Executive Secretary Andrea Maribel Soto were on hand to congratulate the victors and give words of advice. Traditionally, newly elected USG members run from the Office of Student Life, where the winners are announced, to the USG offices to hear advice from current USG members, but campus security was in the process of closing the building, so this tradition took place in the second floor lobby.
“Just know that the four of you are your own support system … you need to all be on the same page and you all need to lead your team towards a common goal,” Soto said.
“This is the easiest part,” she added, about winning the election.
Kalani told the newly elected e-board that USG is what one makes of it.
“It’s a big task and everyone is probably going to either hate you or love you,” she said.
Jorgensen offered her congratulations and said to the newly elected USG.
“You are about the take the reins of an organization so many of us have poured our hearts and souls into; do not take this role lightly,” Jorgensen said. “At the same time I want you take this happiness and spirit with you and carry it with you through your entire term.”
“I’m really happy to see so many good people get elected. Hearing the final results was definitely bittersweet — people on both sides who put in countless hours of work didn’t get to see victory, but I have no doubt it’ll turn out for the best,” said Castillo said about his win, continuing that he is “…eager to take on my responsibility of helping push Baruch forward.”
