On St. Kate’s democracy: Students elect new senatorial leaders and decide constitutional changes

By Mia Timlin

On Wednesday, April 9, the St. Kate’s student body elected its new student representatives for the 2025-2026 session. New electees include Victoria Lo, elected to Senate President, Rayan Abdulkadir, elected to Vice President, Suhur Abdu, elected to Sophomore Representative and Ashantti Lino Altamirano and Chloe Rutten, elected to the Commuter Senator positions. 

Also on the ballot were Constitutional amendments, posed by the current Senate, for students to vote on. Some of these changes that passed include removing all gendered language from the document (a proposal that received a 33.59 percent of nay votes), switching the elected title of Senate Chair to Vice President, combining the Public Relations and Social Media Chairs into one role, an extended deadline for students wishing to file for a position leading up to an election and the official elimination of the use of paper ballots.

Only one proposed amendment did not pass, which would have eliminated a minimum GPA requirement to serve on Student Senate. 

You may have noticed on the Senate's social media announcement of winning candidates, that some positions were posted with the message “Write-ins did not meet the 10 vote minimum.” These, as well as other elected first-year positions, will go back on the ballot in the fall, when the Senate will assemble the rest of its members for the upcoming academic year. 

The positions being filled both in this election cycle and in the fall will include the Legislative Board—student representatives elected by the student body–and the Executive Board—students appointed by the elected Senate President, Vice President. The president and vice president will also select a new Senate Official in the fall. The president, vice president, and senate official operate closely as a team throughout the upcoming year and are referred to as the “leadership team.”

While the Executive Board and Legislative Board have different job descriptions and responsibilities, their missions are very much in line. The two often work closely with each other. 

Elected representatives are chosen by their peers to advocate for the needs and concerns of the groups they represent to the broader Senate. The role of representatives is to listen to their constituents’ concerns, provide communication on the activities of the Student Senate and engage with the Senate. 

There are two major ways that this engagement within the Senate happens. The first is by joining a committee. Each appointed member of the Executive Board is responsible for either chairing or co-chairing a committee dedicated to a specific issue. These committee focuses range from the finances of the Senate, to diversity on campus, to academic advocacy and communication. Every member of the Senate is required to join one of these committees, as well as an Ad-Hoc committee.

Ad-Hoc committees are formed at the beginning of the academic year based on student concerns reported on their fall election ballots. The Senate will typically select three initiatives and spend the rest of the year advocating for or implementing projects that address the issue. This year’s Senate Ad-Hocs were focused on Campus Spaces, Community Resources and Senate Concerns. If students are interested in joining a committee or Ad-Hoc, they don’t have to join Senate—the meetings are open to any and all students to attend and participate in if they wish.

In line with letting all students into the Student Senate space, both the President Elect and Vice President Elect placed an emphasis on the value of community that they want to bring with them into their year as the leaders of the governing body.

“I am honored for people’s acknowledgement and support,” Lo says. “I look forward [to] next year and the possibilities. My goal is to be organized and communicative with St. Kate’s community. I’m excited for what we can accomplish—it’ll be awesome!”

Abdulkadir shares that community was actually her motivator for running for Senate in the first place.

“I was initially interested in running for Senate VP because I love connecting with people,” Abdulkadir says. “Through this role I am excited to create a more community engaged Senate that prioritizes student voice!”