Associated Students announced its official candidate list for the 2022 board of directors elections last Wednesday.
The campaigning period started on March 28 and goes through April 15.
There is only a single slate this election season: “The AdvoGators.” Slates are similar to political party affiliations with a group of candidates running with common ideologies. Last year, there were three.
According to The AdvoGators’ Instagram post, the slate is advocating for “students of all backgrounds and fights for student inclusion in all decision-making spaces, ensuring students are well informed on changes and discussions happening across campus and throughout the CSU system, bridging inequity gaps to ensure all students have fair and equal access to higher education and holding administration accountable to ensure all departments across campus are being transparent with students.”
Only 34 candidates are set to run in this year’s election, a decrease from 50 candidates last year. There are no candidates for education representative and student organization representative. The president, vice president of internal affairs, vice president of external affairs, vice president of academic affairs and the ethnic studies representative positions are uncontested.
Candidates on this year’s ballot include:
- President: Karina Zamora
- Vice President of Internal Affairs: Harsh Patel
- Vice President of External Affairs: Jeel Kankotiya
- Vice President of Finance: Nishithkumar Adhvaryu, Ayush Koul and Mea Montanez
- Vice President of Social Justice & Equity: Arojit Das
- Vice President of Facilities & Operations: Karma Ghale and Ersa Rao
- Vice President of Academic Affairs: Mohit Malik
- Director of Sustainability & Basic Needs: Pari Masarani and Ava Spolec
- Director of Health, Recreation & Wellness: Eleanor Boone, Priyam Mavani, Gage Mettler and Charles Yeh
- Director of Government & Community Relations: Ethan Hanlon, Steven Lee and Hunter Schwenk
- Graduate Representative: Darshil Dhameliya and Omar Yamak
- Ethnic Studies Representative: Noemi Elizabeth Perdomo
- Health & Social Sciences Representative: Gabriella Juarez and Wendy Rodriguez
- Science & Engineering Representative: Henry Chu, Kazi Ruslan Rahman, Fayeeza Shaikh, Krish Thakkar and Alice Vang
- Liberal & Creative Arts Representative: Brianna Brugnara, Iese Esera, Ellie Gomez, Jake Noble and Anandadhara Zulkarnine
Voting begins the April 11 and ends April 15. Voting will take place online and a direct link will be added to iLearn.
According to AS’ Leadership Development Coordinator Christine Amador, they are still trying to coordinate a physical polling place in the Cesar Chavez Student Center where students can vote in-person with an iPad.
There will also be an opportunity at the end of the ballot for students to donate $1 to a recognized student organization of their choice.
Daily updates of election results will be posted on AS’’ social media platforms throughout the voting week.
Unofficial results are expected to be released April 19 at 10 a.m.
