A.S. Council appointed three first year and two transfer senators during the Oct. 24 meeting. The senators will be responsible for representing the needs of new students to council.
The selection committee chose first year senators Payton Carrol, Jasmine Minato and Linh Nguyen and transfer senators Victoria Vlahoyiannis and Albert Chu based on what A.S. President Meggie Le called “dynamic personalities as well as strong ideas.”
The selection committee, which included Le, Associate Vice President of College Affairs Leonard Bobbitt, Campuswide Senator Brad Segal, Engineering Senator Shazzy Gustafson, Sixth College Senator Linda Le and Revelle College Senator Guy Elezra, reviewed interviews and applications before they directly chose two transfer senators. First year senator candidates were narrowed down to five, four and then three final candidates.
Le said that group dynamic was a large focus in the selection process. “The selection committee could imagine all five sitting on council, fighting for students,” Le said. “Each brought something different to the group dynamics.”
Vlahoyiannis will use her position on A.S. Council to begin initiatives that will help transfer students find their niches on campus.
“There needs to be a greater focus on the social aspect for transfers to give them more opportunities to get involved and actually interact with their colleges, which we don’t go to unless we have class there,” she said.
Vlahoyiannis said she hopes to encourage school spirit among transfers, as she feels that there are not enough events oriented specifically toward transfers.
“During Welcome Week, the events were mostly for freshmen and [were] poorly advertised,” she said. “I want to help transfers find the social aspect of college, and find our place on campus by having more transfer-geared events that are marketed better.”
Regarding first-year senators, Le sees a varied set of interests being represented.
“Jasmine is focused on multi-cultural consciousness, and we thought she would take a very analytical approach on things — something that would be very helpful with First-Year Council,” Le said. “Linh [Nguyen] was more policy-oriented but still wanted a focus on school spirit. Payton [Carrol] was focused on school spirit and the college system and we thought she would be able to actively engage with first years in different ways.”
Le hopes the new senators will be more proactive than those of previous years in creating effective policy that represents student interests.
“Something that we saw last year was that there would be certain senators that dominated the group,” she said. “I hope they can be directly involved in their communities and more than the stereotypical senator who just goes to council every Wednesday.”
