Senator for Class of 2023 (2 seats)

In to her candidate biography, Janice Huang cited her upbringing in a diverse environment as preparation for interacting with the Brandeis community. If elected, she will work to improve facilities in Massell and North quads and to encourage collaboration and friendship among her peers. Huang did not respond to the Justice’s request for comment.

Skye Liu feels the first-year class is “underrepresented,” according to her candidate biography. Liu told the Justice in an email that if elected, she will focus on improving campus dining and printing. She also said she wants to send out a survey that will enable all members of the class of 2023 to voice their concerns to the Union. 

Hannah Taylor told the Justice in an email that she “want[s] to have a positive impact on Brandeis and help make it the best place it can be.” If elected, Taylor said she promises to “work hard to represent our class and maintain communication between the Student Union and the greater student body.” 

Senator for Massell Quad (1 seat)

Lucian Dobroszycki’s ’23 campaign slogan is “Get LIT, vote Lucian,” in which LIT stands for love, inclusion and trust, all things he hopes to engender among Massell Quad community members, he said in his candidate biography. Dobroszycki sent the Justice a detailed outline of his proposed initiatives, which include a quad-wide t-shirt designing competition, laundry detergent vending machines, movie nights, additional hooks in the showers, arts and crafts activities during finals week and a bake sale to raise money for quad activities.

Dariel Jimenez ’23 is “passionate about making Massell Quad feel more like a home,” according to his candidate biography. His goals if elected are to add more shelving in the showers and make the communal kitchens “more sanitary to encourage people to use [them] more,” he said in an interview with the Justice. He also wants to propose a clean up of Massell Pond. His main goal, he said, is “making it easier to communicate with everyone.” 

Helen Lin ’23 wants to be Massell Quad senator to help make the living experience of her fellow first-years “as comfortable as possible,” as she wrote in her candidate biography. If elected, her main goals are to help fellow residents understand the resources available to them and to strengthen the Massell community through social gatherings and more engaging common areas. 

If elected, Jason Walter ’23 wants to focus on “making life in the dorms easier,” he told the Justice via email. Some of his initiatives include improving the kitchens, adding fans to the common rooms, providing fast wired internet access via ethernet cables and supplying communal laundry baskets “so if someone’s laundry is done it won’t just get thrown on the floor,” he said. He also expressed that the Student Union should be publicized more to first-years. “Many still don’t know what the Union can do and how it can help them,” he said. 

Senator for North Quad (1 seat)

Tyler Carruth ’23 has been “strolling around the North Quad and talking to [his] peers about what they find important,” he wrote in his candidate biography. Carruth wishes to install communal laundry baskets for the clean laundry that otherwise gets moved around the laundry room by students looking for an open machine. He also said in an interview with the Justice that he wants to hold a communal movie night for people to relax after a stressful week. 

Krupa Sourirajan ’23 is excited to try new things and implement fun activities as potential North Quad Senator, according to her candidate biography. Sourirajan’s main focus if elected would be to facilitate a monthly “Fun in the Quad,” gathering her fellow residents together for barbeques in the warmer months and hot cocoa or movie nights in the winter, per her candidate biography. She also remarked in her candidate biography that she would work to improve the water pressure and add shelving and command hooks for shower items. 

Senator for East Quad (1 seat)

Priyata Bhatta ’22 is running uncontested for senator of East Quad. According to her candidate biography, her goals if elected are to improve access to water fountains and to improve infrastructural problems such as the bug infestation and the unpleasant odor found on various floors. 

Senator for Rosenthal and Skyline Quads (1 seat)

Leah Fernandez ’22 is running unopposed for senator of Skyline and Rosenthal Quads. In her candidate biography, Fernandez cites the experience she gained last year from her work for the Society of Asian Scientists and Engineers, the alumni office, the International Students and Scholars Office as a global fellow and the Department of Orientation as an international Orientation Leader.

Senator for Village and 567 (1 seat)

Cindy Yao ’22 is running uncontested to be senator for Village and 567. As she states in her campaign biography, her main focus is on improving the basic living facilities and creating a comfortable environment for her fellow residents. 

Senator for Ziv and Ridgewood (1 seat)

The only candidate for senator for Ziv and Ridgewood quads, Sagar Punjabi ’21, is running on a campaign of political accountability and strength of community, as he wrote in his candidate biography. 

Senator for Charles River Apartments (1 seat)

Oliver Price ’20 is running uncontested to be senator for Charles River Apartments. Price previously served as the Charles River Senator during his sophomore year, where he helped pilot the Brandeis Sustainability Ambassadors program and worked on the Meatless Monday and menstrual product initiatives.

Senator for Foster Mods Quad (1 seat)

Trevor Filseth ’20 is running unopposed for Foster Mods senator. If elected, he wants to increase student engagement and facilitate greater discussion of Union initiatives, as he wrote in his candidate biography. Filseth served last year as a Class of 2020 senator, where he was part of the Sustainability and Facilities and Housing Committees.

Senator for Off-Campus Students (1 seat)

Though Clara Alexander ’21 values her experience living in a residence hall on campus, she is now enjoying her life off-campus. Alexander wrote in an email to the Justice on Sunday that she promises to increase Bran Van accessibility by creating routes based on students’ housing locations. 

Yoko Hsieh ’22 is running for senator for Off-Campus Students on a platform of increasing Bran Van accessibility. If elected, Hsieh will work to ease the process of making reservations on the Branda app, and to improve its accuracy in tracking the vans in the app, she wrote in her candidate biography. 

Coming in as a transfer student and living off-campus, Alison Leibowitz ’20 found it difficult to “meet other students and to feel like part of the Brandeis community,” she wrote in her candidate biography. 

Zhengmao Sheng ’22 is also running for senator for Off-Campus Students. If elected, Sheng plans to compile a list of safety resources available to students living off-campus, he wrote in an email to the Justice on Saturday. Additionally, he would like to create a “mentor program under which the more experienced off-campus students can provide useful advice and tips to the others who had just moved into a neighborhood.”

Lena Xie ’22 is running for Senator for Off-Campus Students because she understands the frustrations of living off campus, according to her candidate biography. Some of her goals, if elected, would be to advocate for better transportation, new meal plan packages, and more inclusion for off-campus students in campus activities. Xie did not respond to a request for comment from the Justice. 

Myra Kraft Transitional Year Program Senator (1 seat)

If elected senator of the MKTYP, Erik Lambrecht ’23 said he would focus on fostering engagement and giving a greater voice to students in the program, per his candidate biography. He also said he intends to increase awareness of the program among non-MKTYP students and to communicate its members’ contributions to the greater Brandeis community. Lambrecht did not respond to the Justice’s request for comment.

Zayquan Lewis ’23 is running for senator of the MKTYP because he wants to be “a part of a team that creates change for the student body,” he wrote in an email to the Justice. If elected, Lewis plans to focus on funding University projects, clubs and scholarships, as well as “issues that concern students directly, such as housing and transportation,” he said in an email to the Justice. 

Racial Minority Senator (1 seat)

Joyce Huang ’22 is running uncontested for the position of Racial Minority senator. As a Chinese American raised in a predominantly white community, she said she “understand[s] how race affects people and how it affects other people’s image of you,” she told the Justice in an interview. An initiative she plans to push forward is the creation of an anonymous confession page through which students can report race-related incidents and submit their concerns about race dynamics on campus. The submissions “are not to be published,” she said. “They’re just for me to take in and create initiatives out of.” 

Two-Semester Representative to Allocations Board (2 seats)

Bob Corpening ’21 said in his campaign biography that he will “ensure clubs that dream bigger and push their limits get the funding and support they need.” 

Emma Fiesinger ’23 is running for Allocations Board to increase ease of access to funding and “to guarantee that clubs receive the funding they need in order to function properly and allow [their] members to have fun in their chosen environment,” she wrote in her candidate biography. “I want students to be well-informed of how club funding works on campus, so I plan to make the process as transparent as possible,” she wrote in an email to the Justice on Saturday. 

Vicky Liu ’23 is running for A-Board to help ensure that “every club and organization on campus has an equal chance to receive funding,” according to her campaign biography. She told the Justice that as her high school Head of Ambassadors, she coordinated events and trained other ambassadors, which gave her valuable lessons on cooperation and leadership.

Steven Luo ’21 said in his campaign biography that his main goal as A-Board representative would be to improve the efficiency of money distribution, thus reducing the work needed to obtain funding for clubs. Luo emphasized communication in his campaign biography, calling for the student body to “not hesitate to reach out to me for any questions or concerns.”

Jordy Piñero ’23 expressed his love for the “inclusive and supportive community atmosphere” of Brandeis in his candidate biography. If elected, Piñero said he hopes to understand both the student and departmental perspectives in regards to allocations and to suggest club links and mergers to remove overlap, per his candidate biography. 

Two-Semester Racial Minority Representative to Allocations Board (1 seat)

Marshall Smith ’21 is running for his second term as minority representative to A-Board. He says that his motto in life is “work yields rewards,” and that he has followed this motto throughout his time at Brandeis, according to his candidate biography. Smith said he is looking forward to returning to the A-Board and to helping create a “positive campus life environment,” per his candidate biography. 

Three-Semester Representative to Allocations Board (1 seat)

Rebecca Shaar ’21 is running unopposed for senator for Three Semester Representative to A-Board. She previously served on A-Board for three semesters and was co-chair for the Spring 2019 semester. She also served as a club chairman and wrote in her candidate biography that this has given her the ability to “sympathize with and understand the perspective of club leaders.” Shaar wrote in her candidate biography, “I believe my experience would ensure a seamless transition going into the Fall semester.”

—Editor’s Note: Trevor Filseth is a senior staff writer for the Justice’s Forum section.