The most anticipated task on the Wesleyan Student Assembly’s (WSA) agenda at its held first General Assembly of the Spring semester this Sunday, Feb. 1, was the internal elections conducted among WSA senators, who vote for their peer senators.
This comes after the winter election in December when the general student body voted first-time senators Ayomide Alao ’29, Angelise Benimadho ’29, Zev Brown ’28, Lucia Mezey ’28, Gad Nkurunziza ’27 to the assembly. Re-elected senators to the WSA are Ashlynn Adams ’29, Melvin Carcamo ’28, Janessa Curden ’26, Casey Dunning-Sorey ’28, Saul Ferholt-Kahn ’27, Raiza Goel ’28, Montana Gura ’27, Andrea Herrera ’27, and Nicolás Millán Prieto ’27.
As per tradition, the meeting began with the University fight song. The senators of each committee introduced themselves and the chairs of the committees summarized their work from the Fall semester. Also per tradition, they discussed their plan for the upcoming semester.
“This election, much like most of our internal elections, is part of our procedures,” WSA President Paul Quach ’26 wrote in an email to The Argus. “Through this process, we elect who will serve on each committee, along with the chair/vice chair, as applicable.”
WSA Senator UsZee McKoy ’29 emphasized the importance of the internal election.
“It will set the stage for what type of new ideas, projects, and initiatives will take place, and by electing those who are ambitious and come with good inspirations and good ideas and goals and leadership, we can help advance the community and WSA,” McKoy said.
The election results now alter the committee makeup for the Spring ’26 as reflected below. Only those newly elected in December now start their terms on committees; Senators who have retained their terms since the Spring ’25 elections will continue their committee assignments.
The Academic Affairs Committee (AAC) now consists of Chair Andrea Herrera, Vice Chair William Cabral ’28, Santiago Galvan ’26, Nicolás Millán Prieto, Gad Nkurunziza, and Raiza Goel.
The Community Committee (CoCo) is led by Chair Saul Ferholt-Kahn, Vice Chair Elana Hartley ’28, David Tu ’26, Coco Rawley ’29, UsZee McKoy, and Ayomide Alao.
The Equity and Inclusion Committee (EIC) is now composed Chair Katie Williams ’28, Vice Chair Saakshi Challa ’27, Makayla Kidd ’29, Ashlynn Adams, and Angelise Benimadho.
The Student Budget Committee (SBC) is led by Chair Zain Punjwani ’26, Vice Chair Asper Cisse ’28, Amal Mallick ’27, Eric He ’28, Lucas Holman ’29, Mina Aldous ’29, and Melvin Carcamo.
The Student Life Committee (SLC) will be headed by Chair August Gardyne ’26, Vice Chair Casey Dunning-Sorey, Bela Bhushan ’29, Lucia Martinez-Pelaez ’29, Zerek Laghari ’29, Janessa Curden, Zev Brown, Lucy Mezey ’28, and Montana Gura.
Although the entire internal election procedure is closed for outsiders, Quach wrote that the “WSA always works towards having positive, fair, and open discussions.”
Additionally, Quach highlighted the atmosphere within the WSA community.
“The success of one committee is celebrated by the other committees, hence why we always share our committee reports to keep each other informed and answer any questions,” Quach wrote. “I’m excited for the momentum to carry through with our new chairs!”
Quach shared some of the committees’ upcoming tasks for the semester.
“AAC [is] engaged in conversations about AI and proposing the creation of a study abroad subcommittee of the WSA; CoCo has continued to improve the UOC space and gave life to the WSA Instagram; EIC is putting on TWO town halls this semester,” Quach wrote.
McKoy expressed his particular enthusiasm for CoCo’s work in the upcoming semester.
“We recently just elected Saul Ferholt-Khan to be our chairman, and I couldn’t be more thrilled to see him be our committee chair, as well as for Elana Hartley to be our vice chair,” McKoy said. “I think they are the dream team, and hopefully this committee can deliver the best results for [the University].”
Quach is looking forward to working with the WSA’s newly elected senators and chairmen throughout the semester.
“I believe in my senators,” Quach wrote. “Across our committees, we have really awesome projects in the works, and with the excitement of the new semester and new senators joining the team (or coming back from abroad), we can’t wait to see what they are able to do.”
Grace Lee can be reached at glee01@wesleyan.edu.
Raiza Goel is the Managing Editor for The Argus.
Leave a Reply