Pareesae Imtiaz
Senate Students
Politics, even within a small college community like Knox, can be a challenging space to navigate. Students, faculty, and staff bring diverse perspectives and expectations to the table, each hoping that their voices are reflected in the decisions made by those in leadership positions.
In understanding so, it’s that point in the academic year when the student senate for the upcoming year is elected at Knox College. Before we look at the results of these elections, it’s important to understand what the election process entails.
The student senate employs a democratic voting process to elect executive board members. This process takes place during the winter term over an Engage elections online form. The results are announced during the term so the elected members can prepare to shadow members in their positions over spring term, and finally transition into the role at the start of fall term.
The executive board in the student senate includes the positions of president, vice president, treasurer, and secretary. The prerequisites for these electoral positions vary.
To apply for president, a candidate must serve at least a year prior to the elections in the executive committee, which is an extension of the executive board and includes four additional members: sustainability chair, diversity chair, health and wellness chair, and campus life chair.
Competing for the vice president position requires one year of experience in senate, but not specifically in the executive committee.
To qualify for the treasurer position, the candidate must have a year-long experience in senate, and should have attended at least 5 finance committee meetings.
For secretary, one year of experience in the student senate is required, and further experience in outreach.
These requirements are set in place to ensure candidates have prior experience as no interviews are conducted prior to the elections. Interested candidates submit ballot statements, and the former vice president conducts the elections. This year, the elections were run by junior Sikandar Mateen, student senate president 2024-25, as the current vice president, junior Manavi Subba was running for president.
Interviews were not conducted for the executive board because there were not enough candidates running for the same position. For the first time in five years, the Senate had two presidential candidates this time around. Previously, presidential candidates have run unopposed.
Running for president requires at least two years of experience in the Senate, making it difficult to fulfill the requirements needed to run for the position, hence narrowing the candidate pool. According to Mateen, even if multiple people qualify for the position, not everyone with the experience is willing to run because of the workload and high degree of responsibility the position comes with.
A debate was held on Feb. 18 between candidates running for the executive board. This debate was moderated by senate diversity chair, sophomore Malika Ramdhina. It was live-streamed on Instagram.
The setup of this debate was such that the questions were asked by the moderator and then candidates took turns answering them. Audience members were also given the opportunity to ask questions directed to a position rather than an individual to ensure that the questions were not targeting a particular person.
Like previous years, the demographic of students running for the Senate executive board has remained consistent this year, with all seven candidates running for executive board positions being international students. A total of two out of the eight candidates in the current executive committee are domestic students. However, there is a more diverse group of senators.
“This is an issue that we have been trying to deal with since before I came here […] it has always been that senate exec has majorly been internationals, and I feel like two reasons for that is that because it is such an electoral position and the international students have a way more closer community with each other it’s easier for them to stand and like get those votes, and it’s easier for them to make that community and bond to make sure they have that support,” said Mateen. “The other thing is essentially with this demographic it’s just something about interest we would say, we’ve tried, like I personally did do most of the recruiting for my senate exec, but for a lot of the electoral positions it has just happened to be this way […] which is why we have taken the initiative for having diversity mixers.”
Election results were announced via email on the morning of Feb. 24. The student body was more involved in the elections this year as a total of 479 students cast their ballot, while there were only 61 voters last year.
Subba won the presidential seat with 244 votes, which was just nine votes higher than her opponent, junior Khalid bin Abdullah. First-year Fatima Babar took the vice president’s seat with 238 votes and Mateen ran unopposed and got elected as treasurer with 361 votes. Junior Naysha Jain took the role of secretary with 216 votes.
“I think a lot of it can be attributed to the eagerness of the freshman class to get involved around campus. That being said, I do believe part of the voter turnout can be attributed to the presence of some polarizing parties running for positions and rather aggressive election campaigns. I found myself in an awkward position while voting, it felt like choosing a lesser of two evils. I’d like to see more candidates running for the various positions in the future. I believe healthy competition can help to restore the stained reputation of the student senate,” said sophomore Umer Yasin.
While senate elections were a popular topic of conversation among students across campus, the discussions weren’t always the most favorable. Some students feel uncertain about the leadership qualities of the incoming president and hope that public pressure will drive her to take a more active and approachable role.
“I know a lot of people have really strong opinions about who is elected as president for next year, and I think if a lot of people are saying the same thing about someone, there’s a reason it’s being said, and if that reflects the work ethic that they have then I think that should be taken into account when someone chooses who to vote for,” said junior Lexi Sendall.
Comments like these highlight a growing demand for broader participation and accountability within student government. Concerns have only become more vocal with the recent surge in voter turnout.
“I haven’t seen much impactful work from the current vice president, who is going to be the future president […] but the current president hasn’t been treated nicely by the community, so I don’t think he would even want to be in control,” said Ramdhina. “I hope [the new president] knows that this is what people are saying and I hope that it’s enough pressure from the public for her to take on control, because diamonds are shaped out of pressure, and if there’s enough pressure […] I think she can do the job just enough […] another thing is that I hope she becomes more approachable to the general public, because I know from the past year people only reached out to the president.”
While there is a wave of mistrust in the newly elected executive board, former president Mateen remains optimistic about the future success of the student senate.
“I think she would make a great president. She knows how to lead a team, she has been vice president,” said Mateen.
Subba acknowledges the student body’s mistrust in her, but is confident that her work in the upcoming year will speak on her behalf.
“I think that I can win their faith by doing better in senate and doing whatever I can for my student body,” said Subba.
With a higher percentage of the student body being involved in the elections, we may expect more diversity in the Senate soon too. It was a close race, leaving the elected members with a great deal of responsibility. The Knox campus community expects a lot from the new executive board and hopes for effective leadership fostering active, inclusive, and transparent engagement with the student body.