Voting will take place via WEngage on March 14th. For more information, check out https://www.tinyurl.com/wellesleycgelections or email any questions to [email protected].
President Candidates
Ingrid Bell ’24 (she/they)
Dear Wellesley,
My name is Ingrid Bell (she/they), class of 2024, and I’m so excited to announce my candidacy for College Government President!
I served as a senator my first year and as CG Secretary-Treasurer my sophomore year. Through these positions, I learned how CG works and contributed to initiatives including purchasing and distributing free KN-95 masks to students and getting Cabinet invited to admin’s senior leadership meetings. After being abroad this fall, I’m back on campus and ready to jump back into CG with both feet.
But this election isn’t about me – it’s about you. The student body knows what they need from administration and College Government, and it is up to Cabinet and especially to the CGP to bring admin attention to the issues that need it most. Every student’s voice is important and valuable, and as CGP I will do everything in my power to make sure your voices are heard.
I plan to solicit feedback from students on which Senate guests and topics would be most helpful, and to invite students to present at Senate on issues that are important to them. Senate should be a space where all students feel safe to voice their opinions and confident those opinions will be valued. That said, an hour a week to sit in the Academic Council Room should not be a requirement to have an active voice in the running of the college, so I plan to run regular office hours for myself and encourage the rest of Cabinet and all senators to do the same. I will also work to make information about all of CG’s initiatives and processes as accessible as possible so that students know how to get involved and what resources are available.
Outside of Senate, the CGP works with various members of admin and is often asked to communicate the opinion of the student body to inform admin decisions. In these settings, I promise to set my own opinions aside and represent overall student sentiment as best as I can. I will actively seek out input from students across campus and will make a particular effort to work with orgs representing marginalized students in order to ensure that CG is advocating for the needs of all of our sibs.
Wellesley students have given me such a wonderful community and I look forward to working in the next year to make this school a better place for us all, whether as you CGP or not.
Please reach out to me ([email protected]) with any questions and don’t forget to vote!
Vice President Candidates
Anna Boland ’24 (she/her), Vice President Candidate
Hi Wellesley!
My name is Anna Boland ‘24 (she/her), and I am running to be your next College Government Vice President!
The Vice President chairs the Appointed Representatives Committee, or ARC, which handles the appointment of student representatives to Academic Council and Board of Trustees committees, as well as various administrative task forces. I have been a member of ARC during both of my years as a Senator and have gained a substantial amount of insight into its potential in that time.
My investment in and love for College Government has been a defining characteristic of my experience at Wellesley. As a First-Year Senator for Freeman, I furthered my involvement by becoming one of four Academic Council Representatives, a position that entails attending and reporting on the monthly council meetings of faculty and administration. With my fellow representatives and in conjunction with NASA, I co-authored the (eventually successful) resolution for the college to recognize Indigenous People’s Day. After my first year, I took a leave of absence for two and a half semesters, but I was thrilled to rejoin Senate as an Executive Senator for Tower Court, and as an Academic Council Representative once again, this past fall.
I have always been fascinated by details and logistics, and I am intensely passionate about the dissemination of fact-based information. I believe that one of our greatest strengths as a student body is our commitment to transparency and accountability, and the existence of more than 60 student representative positions on various committees is a testament to our dedication to ensuring our voices are heard at the highest levels of decision-making at the college. These positions are vitally important, and we would be remiss to not take full advantage of them. If elected, I would interface with the current CGVP to discuss continuing our goals of improving student representative training, expediting the appointment process, and shifting the application timeframe to the spring. This final goal would give ARC more time to vet applicants, and also allow appointees to start the subsequent school year ready to serve in their positions. I would also initiate an overhaul of the ARC application grading rubric and institute a new documentation system to improve institutional memory and ensure the success of future ARC committees.
As your Vice President, I would be absolutely committed to heightening your voice as a student. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions, concerns, or ideas! My email is [email protected]. Thank you!
Chief Justice Candidates
Dhanya Srikanth ’24 (she/her)
Hi Wellesley!
My name is Dhanya Srikanth (Class of 2024; she/her) and I’m excited to run for the position of Chief Justice. I’ve spent a year as a representative on the Honor Code Council and have seen first hand the strengths and weaknesses of our current process. I love Wellesley’s history of student-led commitment to the principles of the Honor Code and would be delighted to build on the work of previous justices and the student body as a whole in order to make the Honor Code a more equitable, transparent, and integrated presence at Wellesley. In order to make this happen, I plan to focus on the following:
Removing Campus Police from Hearings: We must continue our work to remove the presence of campus police from the hearing process. Although a lot of progress has been made, it is necessary to entirely eliminate their role during hearings.
Faculty Training/Guidance: As of now, the faculty and administrative handbooks do not mention the Honor Code process, let alone the promises and rights that it grants for students. There is also no general faculty training provided on the Honor Code. We must implement faculty-specific trainings and embed resources on the Honor Code in faculty guidelines. More knowledge about the Honor Code from potential charging parties will help ensure that students undergo a fair and respectful process in what is inevitably a stressful situation.
Transparency: I will work to implement student recommendations in the process of faculty appointments to the council. In addition, I will continue the council’s work to process and release data about hearings throughout the year. Transparency also applies to the information that students receive about courses before they are able to drop or switch the grading basis for a class. HCC will amplify student concerns to ensure that course descriptions include information about the finals structure of a class and syllabi cover the varying definitions of acceptable academic conduct as they apply to specific classes.
Outreach: I will increase the intensity and frequency of our work with other organizations around campus. There are a lot of misconceptions about the Honor Code at Wellesley, as well as legitimate concerns about its limitations and harms. Representatives from Honor Code Council should meet with students in open office hours throughout the year and be assigned to a group of organizations throughout the year as an extra resource for questions and concerns. Every student at Wellesley should play a role in deciding the future of the Honor Code, and increased outreach will amplify student voices.
Student Bursar Candidates
Rin Tsavalyuk ’24 (she/her)
Dear Wellesley,
My name is Rin Tsavalyuk (she/her, ‘24), and I’m excited to be running for the Student Bursar position!
I became a bookkeeper in the Bursar’s Office during my sophomore year and enjoyed being in the office and sitting on SOFC these past two years. At every SOFC meeting, I feel that I’m connecting more with student activities on campus and that we, as a committee, are making a great impact on our community. While I have seen a lot of change in student organization funding, there is still much work to be done. I’m running for Student Bursar because I want to address all the difficulties I had as a treasurer and all the feedback we get from treasurers. My goal is to make funding less stressful and provide more opportunities for students to engage in different activities.
For all these reasons, my priorities are:
– Foster the spirit of equity and inclusion in SOFC and Bursar’s Office. I would like to incorporate a required implicit bias training for bookkeepers and have training for all members of SOFC on DEI and how it fits into organizations’ funding.
– Provide training resources to treasurers coming from different backgrounds. We have a lot of treasurers who have been in this position for multiple years, and we have first-year treasurers who are still adjusting to being at Wellesley. I believe it is important to have more extensive treasurer training for those treasurers who need extra support.
– Revise the application format. The last time the application was updated was many years ago, and we all can agree that the format is far from perfect. The new format, potentially a google form, should save treasurers and SOFC readers time, be more convenient for linking spreadsheets and other documents, and be a better way of keeping application records.
– Maintain transparency and connection between SOFC and the student body. I hope to organize more events open to the whole school so that people can learn more about organizations’ funding and how to get involved.
– Collaborate with Orgs Chair on making organization funding a more efficient process. There needs to be a clearer way of communicating between CORA and SOFC, and having a student liaison between the two would be very beneficial.
I’m very excited to make SOFC more equitable and accessible. I’m happy to answer any questions you may have [email protected]. Thank you for your time and consideration of my candidacy.
Secretary-Treasurer Candidates
Celine Yung ’26 (she/her)
Hi Wellesley!
My name is Celine Yung ‘26 (she/her), and I am so excited to be a write-in candidate running for College Government Secretary-Treasurer!
As a first-year student, I focused on being deeply involved in the Wellesley community by engaging with various campus orgs like Tupelos, WZLY, TCO, and WCC. I am currently also a senator of Tower Court, and I gained valuable experience in advocating for the needs and interests of my constituents. CG allowed me to learn more about the resources and staff on campus that I wasn’t aware of before while giving me the opportunity to spread this information to those around me.
Through my different roles this past year, I have developed strong communication and collaboration skills, allowing me to connect with many people around campus.
My goal as Secretary-Treasurer is to increase transparency between the CG and the student body. I found that many first-year students are unaware of what CG does and what discussions happen during senate. I believe that I can bridge the gap by making the weekly minutes and digests more accessible. I think it would be helpful to have two versions of senate minutes: the one we currently have coupled with a shortened one-page version. I hope to strengthen CG’s social media presence by creating highlight reels on Instagram featuring all the events and spam that will be happening that week, allowing students to gain awareness about the many events that happen on campus. I hope to also create a Google Calendar that will be available to the entire student body, allowing everyone to be able to plan their time and commitments for upcoming events. By doing so, I aim to ensure that CG remains accessible to everyone.
Thank you so much for reading all of this, I am so grateful for your time and consideration. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me @celyung on Instagram or cy106.
Director of On-Campus Affairs (DOOCA) Candidates
Kaya Crosby ’24 (she/her)
Hi Wellesley! My name is Kaya Crosby (she/her) ‘24, and I am so excited to be running for the position of Director of On-Campus Affairs (DOOCA). The DOOCA serves as the head of the Schneider Board of Governors (SBOG), and is a liaison between the administration, the board, and the Wellesley community as a whole.
When I joined SBOG my first year, the only Wellesley that I knew was immensely isolating and largely devoid of social events- it being the thick of the pandemic. My time on the board has involved much discussion around what the social atmosphere of Wellesley looks like now, how it has changed, and what the future of on-campus events might look like. In many ways, we are all still working to rebuild the sense of community that existed at Wellesley before the pandemic. This applies to the community within SBOG, but also to our role as a board that serves the entire campus.
As your DOOCA, I would like to continue to work to rebuild the connections that existed between SBOG and the larger campus community prior to lockdown. I hope to foster collaborative relationships with other student groups on campus to make SBOG’s events as inclusive and varied as possible. It is critical that our events are accessible, inclusive, and serve as safe spaces where students can enjoy themselves. One of my favorite things about SBOG are the legacies that our events carry, from Remix to Lake Day to the LDOC Concert (looking at you, Macklemore), and I hope to find ways to build on our rich history while adapting to meet the needs of our present and future campus community.
For the last year and a half, I have served as the treasurer of SBOG. This role has given me a deeper understanding of the board’s position as the student organization with the most funding, and the responsibilities that come with that. It has provided me with experience in communicating with campus partners and off-campus representatives, in addition to teaching me the importance of clarity and organizational skills. My role on SBOG has been one of the best parts of my time at Wellesley, and it would be a privilege to bring everything that I have learned to the position of DOOCA. I am committed to serving the interests of the student body above all else- because without you, SBOG wouldn’t exist!
Thank you for your time and consideration. It would be an honor and privilege to serve as your DOOCA 🙂 If you have any questions or just want to chat, please email me at [email protected]!
Political Engagement Chair Candidates
Sara Popkin ’25 (they/them)
My name is Sara Popkin (they/them), I’m a sophomore majoring in Peace & Justice Studies and Economics, and I’m running to be your next Political Engagement Chair. I am prepared to take on the responsibilities of serving as the chief spokesperson of the Committee for Political Engagement (CPE), keeping students informed about local political events, and planning on-campus events for political education and discussion. I have vast experience in how CPE meetings are run and events for the student-body are organized. I hope to bring my values of love, healing, community care, transformative justice, peace, justice, and kindness to this position.
I have been involved with College Government since I started studying at Wellesley. My first year, I served as a Senator for Lake House. That fall, I served on Community Organizing Resource Collective (CORC) as my committee assignment, researching and organizing for the free laundry initiative. I joined CPE the next semester, and I served on both CORC and CPE as Lake House’s Senator. Then, I was elected to CPE E-Board for the 2022-2023 academic year as Organizations Liaison.
As your Political Engagement Chair, I will continue popular events like Bipartisanship and Bubble Tea, and Spectrum Night that allow students to express their views, learn more about political topics, and engage in discussion with fellow sibs. I also hope to introduce new events that explore more avenues for political engagement, such as community-building oriented events and poetry open mics. I believe that politics does not stop at the poll booths, and contributing to democracy can be done through creativity: art, music, poetry, in addition to electoral politics.
I believe that embodying Wellesley’s value of Inclusive Excellence requires acknowledging that many of the the identities that we and our fellow sibs hold are politicized, and that our commitment to equity and inclusion must support all people of marginalized genders, especially our trans and nonbinary sibs. We must take care in how we facilitate political discussion on campus and respect people with different backgrounds and identities than us. Politics is linked to injustice and structural oppression. In order to present political issues in a balanced and educational manner, we must empower and support sibs directly impacted by oppression and value their lived experiences.
Sincerely, Sara Popkin (they/them), Class of 2025, [email protected]
Community Organizing and Inclusion Liaison (COIL) Candidates
Liz Huang ’24 (she/her)
Dear Wellesley,
My name is Liz Huang (she/her), Class of ‘24, and I am running a write-in campaign to be your next Community Organizing and Inclusion Liaison (COIL). You may know me as “Liz the PEC,” your faithful Political Engagement Chair on this year’s College Government Cabinet. Politics is all about power, and my aim for next year is to nurture and facilitate your power as students. I want the Wellesley community to strive for, as #BlackLivesMatter co-founder Patrisse Cullors has put it, “leader-fullness.” In the spirit of our motto, “Non Ministrari, sed Ministrare,” we can all be leaders, striving for the betterment of our campus community.
As a student organizer and E-Board member of Wellesley for the Abolition of Militarism and Incarceration (WAMI) and Students for an Accessible Wellesley (SAW), I am familiar with the needs of Wellesley’s organizing and inclusion landscape. I am leading a long-term transformative justice project with the Coalition for Transformative Justice (CoTJ), co-leading Wellesley Covid Action Plan (WCAP), and opened dialogue with administrators about various campus accessibility issues (e.g. transportation, testing centers, dining halls). I have also been involved in projects including the current ballot initiative, a faculty disability training workshop, and the pilot Student EMT program. Moreover, as a student of color, I am deeply sensitive to issues of racial justice. In May of 2021, I co-organized a 400-attendee AAPI Month rally in my hometown in response to the deep racial hurts reverberating through my community.
I wish to continue fighting for all these marginalized communities in my capacity as COIL. Just as importantly, I am excited to learn more about all the vital organizations and leaders that I have not yet had the pleasure to connect with. I have deep faith in the power of community building to strengthen trust and foster intersectional dialogue. For all the members of social justice, cultural, and spiritual organizations on campus, I would delight in joining you for lunch or attending an open meeting to get proximate to your needs. I am an open book–talk to me, and I will listen. I aim not just to pursue my own passions, but to empower you to do the same.
I will work hard to protect your right to safely speak, assemble, and protest. In order for Wellesley to cultivate leadership that is impactful, democratic, and sustainable, we need breathing room for student organizing to grow and thrive. I will work with you to get the organizing projects you care about onto the administrative table, acting as a conduit and facilitator. And I will serve as a resource, so that your organizing efforts may flourish.
May we all be leaders, and Wellesley College be leader-full.
Thank you for your consideration! Please email me at [email protected] for any questions or to chat about advocacy.
With love, Liz Huang, ‘24
Orgs Chair Candidates
Gwen Eckl ’25 (she/her)
Hi Wellesley!
My name is Gwen Eckl, and I’m excited to be running as a write-in candidate for Orgs Chair- please write in “Gwen” for Orgs Chair!
As a current sophomore, I spent my first year on campus in an odd sort of limbo- the shifting guidelines and changing restrictions around Covid made it hard for the community to engage with one another. Many student orgs struggled to come together, and many students were unable to get fully involved until this year.
This made me realize that for my fellow students to be able to fully enjoy the community and connection provided through our orgs, they would need an Orgs Chair who could help facilitate clear communication between students, orgs, and administration about current policies, as well as help reinvigorate orgs after the pandemic.
I want to increase transparency and communication between students, College Government, and orgs. Better communication and clarity of expectations will allow a more efficient, more pleasant experience for everyone involved. Ultimately, I want to provide a positive and supportive environment for orgs, encourage student involvement, and make Orgs Fair a more welcoming experience for everyone.
Thank you for considering me for this role! If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me by email at ge102.
