On April 10, Student Government Association leaders and candidates gathered in front of the Stephen Robert ’62 Campus Center to hear the results of the SGA’s spring 2026 elections.
Around 18% of the student body — 1,304 students — voted in this year’s elections. The turnout is an increase from last year’s 16% turnout, the lowest turnout rate since at least 2022.
President of the Undergraduate Council of Students Talib Reddick ’26 and Chair of the Undergraduate Finance Board Naomi LeDell ’26 stood atop the Faunce steps as they announced the winners of each election.
For the UCS, Ariel Shifrin ’27 and Meruka Vyas ’28 were elected to the positions of president and vice president, respectively. Jeremiah Brenot ’29 will serve as the chair of academic affairs, Balázs Cserneczky ’28 as chair of campus life, Sabrina Ginger Liu ’28 as chair of health and wellness and Inderjot Nijjar ’29 will be chair of student activities.
Shifrin has already begun to work toward “a new vision” for student government, he wrote in an email to The Herald, including reaching out to student leaders and preparing recruitment materials.
He wrote that his top priority is to ensure the UCS’s applicant pool is “passionate about serving the student body and upholding the values of DEI.” He added that he encourages students to reach out with their thoughts on how to improve “the Brown experience.”
For Vyas, her “journey towards governance has always been deeply personal,” she wrote in an email to The Herald. She wrote that she considers leadership “seriously, not symbolically, but in terms of real impact.”
Vyas has been part of UCS for two years, which allowed her to learn how to move ideas forward, she wrote. After the Dec. 13 shooting, she saw how the role of UCS “became real” for many students at Brown through the group’s community assistance form.
“It was about stepping up, connecting students to funding, mental health support and making sure people weren’t alone,” she wrote. “That showed me what good student government can be.”
She is excited to “build stronger connections across campus, especially with student groups that don’t always feel connected to UCS right now.” Her top priorities include making the UCS a more representative body, pushing for “more transparency and student involvement” in changes to campus security and supporting international students.
Aidan Lu ’27 will serve as the UFB chair and Teo Miranda-Moreno ’29 will assume the role of vice chair. There will also be nine UFB representatives: Cameron Berry ’29, Sam Challú ’29, Suhani Garg ’28, Annabelle Kim ’27, Nicholas Prior ’28, Emily Tran ’29, Nick Vince ’29, Daniel Zhao ’27 and Kelly Ding ’29, a senior staff writer for The Herald.
Miranda-Moreno plans to start the year off strong and build a “positive and reliable reputation for UFB.” His top priorities include “increasing accountability and transparency in club funding decisions” and simplifying the UFB’s club re-categorization process.
Bryson Boone ’27 and Ava Stamatakis ’27 will serve as the CCB co-presidents for the rising senior class. The rest of the board consists of Vice President Alex Lim ’27, Treasurer Soniya Chawla ’27, Secretary Katie Marie Pham ’27, Public Relations Officer Irene Kim ’27 and Communications Officer Griffin Cherniss ’27.
Soliyana Belay ’28 was elected as the CCB president for the class of 2028. She will be joined by Vice President Ben Hader ’28, Treasurer Luca Feng ’28, Secretary Veda Dayananda ’28, Public Relations Officer Crystal Wu ’28 and Communications Officer Hee La Sophia Mun ’28.
The CCB class of 2029 cohort consists of President Vanessa Finder ’29, Vice President Sophie Sun ’29, Treasurer Kaushik Nidigattu ’29, Public Relations Officer Josiah De Paz ’29, Communications Officer Scarlett Chang ’29 and Secretary Andrés Newman ’29.
Election season began with two info sessions. After attending one of the sessions, each candidate needs to receive 50 signatures from the student body. This year, the election cycle also featured a debate for UCS president and vice president candidates, as well as UFB chair and vice chair candidates. The event was an expansion of last year’s candidate forum, which aimed to give all candidates a speech platform.
Elections Chair Summer Tullai ’27 noted that student engagement “remains a challenge” in the elections process, she wrote in an email to The Herald. She hopes to expand auxiliary events such as the debate in the future.
LeDell said that when she first ran for chair, there was no platform for candidates to deliver speeches to the student body. That year, she said that students were not able to understand each candidate’s objectives and the elections saw a “decline in voter turnout.”
LeDell has been the UFB chair for the past two election cycles. “I’ve tried to do some work where hopefully more people are seeing that an election is happening,” she said. “I think every election matters.”
