Getting to know the first-year SGA representatives
The First-year SGA President and Vice-president sit down in conversation with staff writer Zoe Kothandaraman to demystify the new first year class presidents’ goals for this year.
Photography by Claire Cenovic/The Barnard Bulletin
By Zoe Kothandaraman
November 19, 2024
Earlier this semester, the Barnard student body voted for new representatives to Barnard’s Student Government Association (SGA). Two new First year representatives were elected, but not a lot of specific information about them has been published. As a Barnard first-year myself, I sat down with First-year President Elise Kang (BC '28) and Vice president Anissa Bassu (BC‘28) to learn more about them and what they plan to do for the Barnard class of 2028.
When asked why they wanted to join SGA, they both referenced their previous careers in competitive debate. Kang went to Horace Mann highschool, an elite private school in the Bronx, which she mentioned “was actually started at Columbia’s Teachers College”. This school is home to a very strong, well resourced debate team which she was part of throughout highschool. When she started Barnard, Kang “didn’t know that she wanted to even be in SGA.” As she started to think about organizations to join, SGA resonated with her the most because it combined the skills that she learned in debate with “something more tangible than winning a competition.” For Kang, “SGA was more of a collaborative than competitive space and that's really unique considering how competitive Barnard is”. As a new member of SGA Kang is looking forward to instituting policies that would make community building at Barnard easier, like communal sporting equipment. On the academic side, kang is also interested in securing a free school-wide quizlet plus subscription.
Despite her vastly different background Bassu told a similar story, and emphasized her hope to use her position to foster community through organizing events at Barnard. She came from a small school in New Jersey, with a graduating class of 42 people. That environment demonstrated the importance of “having personal connections when trying to represent my community” to her. As Vice President, she aims to plan more social events so that Barnard can have frequent chances to “come together as a community.” When asked how she is going to foster more personal connections across all facets of the Barnard community, she said that she “plans on doing that through the SGA Instagram page, where people could DM us with any questions or concerns that they have. We also have an SGA Dropbox located outside of Hewitt”. Both Bassu and Kang also mentioned the fact that SGA meetings are open to the public, so you can voice your opinions and concerns at their weekly Monday meetings.
Your First Year representatives also have various hobbies, and interests outside of their positions. Kang is part of The Student Health Outreach Program (SHOUT), which, according to its website, aims to “educate families about the availability of health insurance and other government benefits”. She is also a member of the RUF Christian fellowship. Bassu is new to sailing and is a member of the Columbia University Sailing Team.
Collaboration on key issues is a really important quality for class representatives to have. When asked how they plan to collaborate, they talked about their personal weekly meetings where they “ talk about any new ideas or initiatives that we think would be helpful for the first year class”.
Kang serves on the representative council and is also “a liaison between first year students and the class dean.” One of the responsibilities of Representative Council members is to vote on the types of questions and concerns that are included in the Desserts After Dark survey (DADS). This survey uses student input to inform the direction of their future initiatives. After they gather data, they can “evaluate student answers and relay that information to organizations with more power, including the board of trustees.” Thus, the representative council decides the direction of the information that is given to high levels of power at Columbia University.
SGA is an integral part of Barnard, which has the ideas and the platform to make the Barnard community better as a whole. To do this, they need participation and proactivity from the Barnard community.
To the first-year class: effectively collaborating with your SGA representatives is paramount to the success of their initiatives. Keep track of what SGA is doing and never feel afraid to voice your opinions to them.