Rizza Estacio

Student Action announced March 8 that current ASUC Senators Haazim Amirali and Melvin Tangonan are running for next academic year’s ASUC president and executive vice president, respectively.

Campus community members and ASUC elected officials alike came together at the ASUC Finance Committee’s special meeting Tuesday to protest the potential defunding of bridges and the seven campus retention and recruitment centers, or RRCs, which was proposed at the last ASUC Senate meeting April 25.

ASUC senators left the senate chambers on two separate occasions at Wednesday night’s meeting to discuss funding for Berkeley College Republicans, as well as the bridges Multicultural Resource Center, an organization that aims to recruit and retain students of color.

Thinking back, we were not meant to win. For Rizza and I to have won the executive slate, the student body would have had to put its energy and faith behind two outspoken bitches who were coming for the throats of the institution. Ha, I admit — it was a long shot. But it was a long shot that I do not regret attempting.

The night’s results mark a major victory for Student Action, which won all the executive seats it campaigned for, and a tough loss for CalSERVE, with only party member Nuha Khalfay managing to secure a spot in the executive office.

Along with a new batch of ASUC executives and senators, students learned both referendums on the ballot passed during Friday’s tabulations ceremony, revising the ASUC constitution and tacking on another student fee for the upcoming year.

After more than a month of campaigning on many different platforms — ranging from striking up conversation on Sproul Plaza to mass-messaging students on Facebook — ASUC candidates pulled out all the stops this week in a last-minute effort to vie for students’ votes.

The AAVP’s most important job is ensuring major projects that directly improve students’ academic experience are completed, and Amarikwa has both the institutional knowledge and the clear (and achievable) plans to earn your vote this year.

During the event, candidates shared their perspectives on a variety of issues, including housing, mental health, basic needs security and the protection of undocumented students.