Kashmala Khan ’29
Managing Editor
The ballots are counted, the campaign pitches are over and Trinity’s newest student government representatives officially hold their seats.
More than half of the Class of 2030 voted in this year’s SGA election, with 310 of the 572 first-year students casting ballots. Six students ran for class president and 13 ran for Senate. Christian Pachis ’30 was elected president of the Class of 2030, alongside three newly elected first-year senators.
For Pachis, the election meant more than simply winning a position. In an interview with Tripod, he mentioned that before arriving at Trinity, he had already looked into the student government constitution and knew he was interested in the role. After being on campus, his interest became more personal.
“I realised that everybody in that orientation room had two things in common: one, we’re all now Bantams and part of the Trinity community, and two, that we share a common goal,” Pachis said. “And that goal is to have the best first year possible on campus.”
The election process itself differed depending on the position. The class-president race used a single-choice vote, whereas for the Senate election, students could rank up to four candidates. A first-place ranking received four points, followed by three, two and one point for second, third and fourth place.
Speaking with the Tripod, SGA co-presidents Maddi Petrow ’27 and Sriram Jetty ’28 said they spent the beginning of the semester trying to make the process more accessible to students who were still figuring out what SGA was. To achieve this, during new student orientation, they spoke to first-year groups and broadcasted a QR code where students could submit their names, email addresses and questions. Around 60 students responded.
Pachis noted that his own campaign involved walking around campus, talking to classmates and explaining what he hopes to achieve if elected. Now that the election is over, he aims to create a similar QR code system for his class, where students can submit feedback and ideas.
However, alongside success, the election also brought concerns about how campaigning should be carried out. “We’re kind of building this from the ground up,” noted Jetty.
Petrow and Jetty said students who raised concerns during the election cycle were contacted directly and that the issues brought to SGA were addressed; these revolved around themes of campaign spending and voter engagement strategies. At the same time, those conversations showcased the need for more formal guidelines so future candidates and voters are not left figuring out the rules as they go.
These matters became particularly relevant at the Sept. 20 SGA meeting, when several amendments were presented and passed. One motion seeks to ameliorate the election process and incorporate new rules in the SGA constitution, while another creates an application process for students who want to fill vacant positions after the election period has ended.
SGA is also working on ConnectED, a centralized website that will bring such SGA information, campus events updates and other resources together in one place.
The vacant positions are already an issue for SGA. Three of four sophomore Senate seats and three of four junior seats were filled, but only two of four senior positions currently have representatives.
For the senior class specifically, the shortage could have a more immediate impact than simply having fewer names on the Senate roster. Petrow and Jetty highlighted that the lack of senior representatives will make it difficult to plan major events such as Senior Snowball and Senior Week, which require students to take responsibility for organizing them.
For Pachis, some of the issues he wants to address are already being discussed by his classmates. He said he has heard concerns about residence halls, particularly laundry and welcomes students to keep bringing forward matters that are pertinent to them. He also aims to work towards making the class of 2030 more involved in Hartford through organizing community events that allow his peers to give back.
With the election over and the amendments now passed, SGA’s next step is putting those changes into practice. The official language of the new election rules will follow, whilst vacant positions can now begin to be filled through the new application process.
For a student government that spent much of the election cycle listening to concerns about how the process worked, the next test will be what those new rules look like once the next election comes around.
