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The Harvard Graduate Council held elections over Zoom to fill four executive board positions on Tuesday, its first meeting of the fall 2024 semester.
Dalton Fogarty, a student at the Harvard Business School who has served as president of the HGC since March, explained the goals of the student government in brief remarks at the start of the meeting.
The HGC, which includes representatives from all 12 of Harvard’s graduate schools, is in charge of disbursing funding through grants and planning University-wide social events for graduate students.
Zara Urooj, the Harvard Extension School representative at the HGC, followed Fogarty by introducing the role of the Extension School at Harvard. HES hosted this week’s HGC meeting, but due to its lack of physical meeting spaces on Harvard’s campus, the election was conducted virtually.
After Urooj delivered her remarks, Amalia S. Hakobyan — a fellow student at the Extension School — sent “#HESproud” as a message in the Zoom chat. The message quickly started a chain reaction of other students echoing Hakobyan’s HES pride.
The HGC then began elections for four positions: chair of operations, chair of finance, chair of programming, and chair of advocacy. Brad Canales, a student at the Extension School and vice president of the HGC, served as whip during the meeting.
Of the 34 people who originally signed up for elections — with some running for multiple positions — only 19 candidates confirmed their desire to run for election and were included on the ballot.
Each graduate school was granted one vote in the elections. Between one and four students served as voting representatives for each school, with the representatives having to collectively decide who to vote for.
Cynthia J. Alvarado and Victor M. Lee ’05, two Harvard Graduate School of Education students, served as both voting representatives and candidates in the election on Monday. The election was conducted anonymously but Alvarado and Lee each won their races for finance and advocacy chair, respectively.
The executive board chose to question candidates after they delivered speeches for each position. After the chair of operations election concluded, Fogarty asked each candidate how they would choose to prioritize their role on the graduate council within the context of the rest of their life.
Cherise S. Dunn, a student in the Harvard School of Public Health who won the election for chair of operations, said that she intended to dedicate time to serving the student government.
“I would be lying to you if I said that it really is my ultimate priority, but I will be very authentic in saying to you that I will dedicate as much time as possible,” Dunn.
Alvarado won chair of finance in a “close” election, according to Canales.
Rothsethamony Seng, a HGSE student, and Tejaswi Polimetla, a Graduate School of Arts and Sciences student, tied for chair of programming, leading to a run-off election. The candidates gave a second round of speeches, with participants expressing support for both in the Zoom chat.
“I’m sorry to interrupt — just to make sure that there’s no such thing as having a co-chair possibility, is there?” Lee asked in his capacity as a voting representative.
Fogarty said that the HGC’s constitution did not allow for a co-chair of programming, and Polimetla won the position in the ensuing election.
The final election for chair of advocacy resulted in a three-way tie between HGSE student Larry M. Smith Jr., HSPH student Aminu O. Alem, and Lee. The vote went directly to a run-off, which Lee won.
Though HGSE makes up about 5 percent of Harvard’s graduate student body, Education School students represented nearly half of those who ran for HGC positions.
“The HGSE community is very, very engaged in community involvement and trying to figure out how to impact change,” Lee added. “It’s a part of our mantra for the school.”
—Staff writer Maeve T. Brennan can be reached at maeve.brennan@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @mtbrennan.
—Staff writer Angelina J. Parker can be reached at angelina.parker@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @angelinajparker.
