Bolu Taiwo aims to amplify student voices
The University of Rhode Island Student Senate held its elections last week from March 22-23, which included the election of a new president and vice president.
President-elect Bolu Taiwo, a junior at URI double majoring in cell and molecular biology and political science, and Vice President-elect Madyson Ramsay, a sophomore and current Vice President of the Senate, won the election by over 100 votes.
Taiwo has been a part of the Senate since the spring semester of her freshman year when she was elected to Senate. She also served as the academic co-chair starting in the fall of her sophomore year. This academic year, she has served as the cultural committee chair, where she has worked to engage more students at URI through the COVID-19 pandemic and hosted programs such as URI’s first menstrual products drive.
The platform that Taiwo ran on was focused on listening to student voices when making decisions in the Senate. She said that students may find it hard to talk to senior leadership at the University, and she hopes to work with them to make senior leadership members more accessible to students.
When she gets into office, Taiwo said that her priority will be working to improve the housing limitations that students are experiencing right now between URI ending the use of most triples and a Narragansett ordinance limiting student rentals to three students to a house.
“I think that it’s very detrimental to our students,” she said. “It’s affecting a lot of people, students are being displaced. You can see that students are going to be in a lottery system and they’re very upset, rightfully so. I think that’s one of the most pressing issues and it’s been a pressing issue for almost a year now. Most of the students that are being affected are moving into very important years of college, you’re kind of moving into your major requirements so I think it’s really important that these students are not also worrying about housing, but able to focus on this time period that’s really changing for them.”
Taiwo is also hoping to change Senate’s finance handbook to better serve students who are looking to get their organizations funded by Senate. This policy has been long in the making, as Taiwo said that working with finances was the reason she joined the Senate.
Upon first joining campus, she planned to become the director of treasury with hopes to get every organization the funding that they need. Over time, that shifted into an interest in passing policies that help students in other ways.
She is hoping that by changing the finance handbook, more student organizations will be able to access Senate funding.
At first, Taiwo was hesitant to even run for president because she felt that she was too busy to give the role her all. But after talking to her friends and family and thinking more about it, she decided to try.
“I was just thinking about [running for president] a little bit more and asking is this something I want to do?” she said. “I just talked to my family about it and people I’m really close to, because I’m nothing without my community. I received a lot of encouragement and support, and I think that’s the main reason I ran, I felt like a lot of people in my community like my friends were like ‘yeah, definitely do it.’”
While she has a unique perspective as a student of color, Taiwo acknowledged that there are also students that aren’t students of color who face struggles. She is part of many communities, including the track team, P.I.N.K. Women and Greek Life, as well as being a part of many communities at URI.
Being a part of these communities allows her to relate to many different student groups at the University. She hopes to use this knowledge to better represent every single student at URI, no matter where they are in their lives.
Taiwo’s experiences being told that she is unable to do things have motivated her to start advocating for policies that empower students. She has worked to make sure situations like this no longer happen to other students.
“It does make me upset because you can, you might not be able to do it today, but that doesn’t mean you can’t do it tomorrow,” she said. “If someone tells you you can’t do something, work 10 times harder until you can do the thing. Even if you get rejected, apply again, apply to a better school. When you get your acceptance whether it takes you two months or two years, write them a letter and send it back to them, just so they know that they should doubt someone’s ability.”
Taiwo hopes that more students will run for Senate in the future and is hoping to bring in new members to her executive board. Students can apply for these positions by contacting Taiwo and filling out an application for a position.
“I’m trying to make Senate a lot different,” Taiwo said. “I want to appoint people that I don’t know, especially if they have good, new and fresh ideas.”
At this week’s senate meeting, Elections Committee Chair and Campus Affairs Committee Chair Michael Bentley certified the results of the election, electing Taiwo as president and Ramsay as vice president.
Ten at-large senators were elected: Emma North, TJ Salvo, Peyton Theil, Jake Eustis, Yasmin Diaz, Chris Bove, Annabel Gibson, Lulu Alrayti and Mitchell Asante.
Ten on-campus senators were elected: Chris Hoover, Mary Henry, Ethan Longolucco, Angelica Tyson, Ryan Harnett, Katie Siegel, Kyra Shindler, Caleb Hilyard and Grace Kiernan.
Four off-campus senators were elected: Adrianna Turano, Randy Urena, Isaiah Kittel and Peter Askar.
Finally, academic college senators were elected: Olivia Johnson for the College of Arts and Sciences, Emily Gamache for the College of Health Services, Rebecca Williams for the College of Education, Katherine Blake for the College of Nursing, Vincent Aidala for the College of Engineering and Andi Miranda Duarte for the College of Environmental and Life Sciences.
At Senate’s Annual Meeting next week, current President Austyn Ramsay will officially pass the gavel to Taiwo, beginning her term as the new Senate president.