History

The journey of the student council started on the year 2021 with the Shared Governance Task Force, which nominated student representatives (Sam Henriquez '23, Sofia Salusso '23, Tom Evans '24, Muhammad Ammar '24) who in turn designed a tutorial under Eileen Scully titled "Reimagining 21st Century Governance" the tutorial formatted a draft charter for the student council which was accepted by the board of trustees and the formal process of nomination and election started on Fall 2022.

To read more about the Shared Governance task force, click here.

The council started its affairs by first four elected representatives from four different constituents of the student body, Mohammad Tanvir Anjum from SEPC (Student Educational Policies Committee), Ahmed Amar from House Chairs, Ahmed Shuwehdi from PAC (Programming and Activities Council) and Mohit KC from B&EC (Budget and Events Committee). These members facilitated pre election conversations around equal representation in the student council, facilitated election design, acted as temporary representatives to the board committees & communicated election to the student body. An independent faction of the student body helped in the same process of spreading the word  about election by postering, to whom the student council remains grateful.

After a nomination period of one week and ranked choice voting of one week (as per the bylaws in the charter), the votes were calculated by Mohammad Tanvir Anjum and Muhammad Ammar in presence of the representatives of each nominee. The election results primarily elected 5 council members and after the first general meeting of the student council a few changes were brought to account.

In the draft charter of the student council, the first bylaw is, that all bylaws are subject to amendment and modification as per the decision of the student council or the student body. Which was reflected by the first executive decision of the student council to eliminate PAC and B&EC reserved seats to the student council and open them up for the nominees who ran for the election. The PAC and B&EC members simultaneously reciprocated their agreement to the decision by pre notifying the student council of their decision to step down from the student council.

Hence the official student council was formed of the following elected members: Ahmed Amar (House Chair), Mohammad Tanvir Anjum (SEPC), Fatima Alamgir Apurba (Freshman), Paige Colby, Rodrigo Diaz, Umang Malik, Karina Gonzalez Perez, Cadence Rose & Samuel De Sousa. The Council then made the decision to appoint Muhammad Ammar as a Non Voting Consultant to the student council.

The first proposal of the student council was drafted & sponsored by Samuel De Sousa to increase FWT stipends for FLoW students on campus. The policy received positive response from the administration. The second proposal was sponsored by Mohammad Tanvir Anjum to disclose budget information to the student council to make informed decisions. Other notable conversations included a response to Student Life's proposal of installing cameras in the Student Center. The midterm elections happened during the last week of the fall '22 semester, as representatives Ahmed Amar and Samuel De Sousa would not be on campus the following term & representative Fatima Alamgir Apurba would not be a freshman. Representative Karina Gonzalez Perez took over the position of House Chair representative, Representative Sofia Martinez was elected as general representative and representative Yami Antonio was elected as the freshman representative all of which in effect for Spring '23 term only.

In Spring '23 the council proposed several proposals to the administration and discusses several important issues namely installation of cctv cameras in the student center, housing issues, anonymous bullying through Jodel mobile app, international and other students' concerns on summer housing, storage and payment for summer jobs. Council members Umang Malik and Mohammad Tanvir Anjum successfully passed the free laundry proposal, Sofia Martinez passed the accessible Narcan proposal and the proposal of free menstrual products in restrooms by Paige Colby was rejected at the moment. The election for the next AY was administered by non-election participating members of the student council.

In the general election for AY 23-24, 246 votes (30% of student body) were casted of which 10 were invalid, with a final count of 236 votes, 6 members were elected by ranked choice voting, Mohammad Tanvir Anjum, Paige Colby, Umang Malik, Taha Ahmar Qadeer, Samuel De Sousa & Yami Antonio took over the responsibilities of the student council beginning Fall '23.