From Monday until Nov. 8, all University of Rhode Island undergraduate students can vote in the fall student senate elections, which elects candidates for spring 2025.
Students running for office must have declared their candidacy by Friday and are allowed to campaign until Sunday.
There are 21 open positions up for election, including five first-year representatives, three off-campus representatives and three representatives for the College of Arts and Sciences, according to the student senate Instagram page .
All student senate members have a duty to their specific elected position and a vote within the general assembly. They play a key role in negotiating aspects of student lives like housing and meal plans, according to student body President Argha Goswami ’25.
“It’s important for freshman voices to be heard on campus,” Goswami said. “It’s very important for on-campus and off-campus voices to be heard, considering there’s a lot of things happening off campus that do not reflect well on URI.”
Goswami mentioned community work that the off-campus representatives were doing in collaboration with the town of Narragansett to improve relations between the town and URI.
Voter turnout has been steadily improving since her first year at URI, Goswami said.
Goswami ran for president in the spring 2024 senate elections, which received between 1,200 and 1,300 votes, according to her. This was higher voter turnout than the average senate election.
“We are looking for people with passion, people with interests or hobbies that want to do something,” Goswami said. “Someone who is not scared of expressing their opinions.”
Student senate members have to represent and advocate for student concerns, according to the URI student senate website .
“[The senate] can be an intimidating space, but the fact that you’re a student representative means you have to have an opinion and not be afraid to express it,” Goswami said.
Arpan Singh, a first-year economics major, is running for one of the five first-year representative seats. Singh has spent his whole life in India and is now an international student at the university.
“URI welcomed me with open arms,” Singh said. “Just as a show of respect, I want to give back to URI [and] bring about changes that have a positive impact on people coming in.”
Singh said he has plans to make URI 101, the introductory seminar for incoming first-year students, more welcoming and interactive. Singh also wants to create stations with ponchos for students who get caught in the rain to either buy or eventually take a poncho for free.
First-year pharmacy major Lindsey Alemany is also running for the position of first-year representative in the upcoming election.
Alemany was a secretary within her high school’s student government, so when she found the student senate organization at orientation, she wanted to run for office.
“During my term I [would] want to focus on freshmen transitioning into college,” Alemany said. “I’m a first generation student, so it was definitely a hard transition coming into college and understanding how things work academically. I would like to be involved in some sort of mentorship where upperclassmen can help freshmen.”
To find out more about the upcoming elections, visit the student senate Instagram page @rhodysenate.