Results of the 2018 Bucknell Student Government (BSG) Executive Board elections were released to students on Nov. 17 by the current Executive Board President Amanda Battle ’18. The new BSG Executive Board will begin their year-long term in January and will include Chandler Houldin ’20 as Executive President, John Davidian ’20 as VP of Operations, and Soni Madnani ’20 as VP of Administration.

Student voter turnout nearly doubled compared to the 2017 Executive Board election results.

“The increased voter turnout reflects an increase in student awareness about BSG and an increase in overall student engagement with University Affairs,” Battle said.

Houldin, who was Class of 2020 president this year and last year, said he was inspired to run for the position of Executive President by the “great leadership [he] has witnessed over the past three semesters” by former presidents Mark Merino ’17 and Battle. Houldin plans to work on a constitutional review with Davidian and Madnani to allow Congress to run as smoothly as possible. He would like to discuss the “implementation of gender inclusive language in the constitution and bylaws,” because he has noticed that parts of the document include only gender binary pronouns.

The role of VP of Operations is to run BSG elections, serve as chair of the Organizational Review Board (ORB), publicize BSG events, and work with the Executive Board during Congress. Davidian ran for the position because he thinks that BSG “has a great ability to better the student experience.” In addition, he is “excited to work with the Executive Board to find ways to increase the efficiency of BSG, which [he] thinks would widen its benefit to students.”

The role of VP of Administration is to distribute and publish minutes from weekly Congress meetings, release information about BSG to campus via social media, and keep record of Congress member attendance. As the future VP of Administration, Madnani looks forward to “bridging the gap between student voices and the University’s student government to ensure that BSG is working to better our campus for all students” and hopes to bring her experience in working with the 2020 Senate and Advocacy committee to achieve this goal.

“Chandler, John, and Soni are three incredible leaders who each bring unique and impactful leadership skills to the board,” Battle said. “I look forward to watching the ways that the 2018 Executive Board continues with the progress already made regarding both internal and external BSG relations,” she continued.