The Collegian
Thursday, March 28, 2024

WCGA announces class chairs, senators amid presidential election controversy

<p>Westhampton Center&nbsp;houses the Westhampton College Dean's Office.&nbsp;</p>

Westhampton Center houses the Westhampton College Dean's Office. 

Editor's note: Lauren Oligino is a news writer for The Collegian.

Westhampton College Government Association had its class chair elections on April 1, the same day junior Hoor Ain organized a town hall meeting after her disqualification from the WCGA presidential election. 

Results for the class chair were released on April 2. The class chairs for the 2022-2023 school year are as follows: first-year Reeja Khan, sophomore Rachel Lim, and junior Jean Azar-Tanguay. Lim and Azar-Tanguay did not respond to The Collegian’s request for comment. 

Both Lim and Azar-Tanguay ran without opponents, said Jordan Jones, sophomore and member of the election committee. 

A class chair's responsibility includes organizing at least one Westhampton College event per semester and keeping in consistent communication between respective grades, class senators, and chair of the senate, according to the WCGA constitution.

Khan will use her position to strengthen the class spirit, she said.  

"I want to start an Instagram page for the 2025 class and highlight people who deserve it," Khan said. "Christian Herald starting counterculture magazine is amazing, right? So I want to spotlight that and encourage more people to be active on our campus." 

WCGA and Richmond College Student Government Association must work collaboratively to address rape culture at UR, Khan said. She specified that her comments did not represent WCGA. 

"We shouldn't target RCSGA, it should be the individuals that we should worry about," she said. "Some friends of mine [in RCSGA] work really hard towards ending rape culture. I think this problem needs to be approached with a little more maturity than it has so far."

The lack of candidates for the 2024 chair elections could have been affected by the number of students studying abroad in the fall, WCGA secretary first-year Amal Ali said. 

All first-year Westhampton College students running for senator have been accepted to serve the 2022-2023 school year because of the lack of candidates, said Sanjna Kaul, a first-year WCGA senator-elect. 

The final elections for WCGA this semester are for the chair of senate position, which will take place on April 8, Westhampton College Dean Kerry Fankhauser wrote in an email to Westhampton College members. Ain said she had also been disqualified from running from the chair of the senate, but she will be serving as a class 2023 senator along with Alexis McClelland, according to Fankhauser's email. The candidates for chair of senate are sophomore Lauren Oligino and junior Sophie Peltzer. 

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Contact news writer Ananya Chetia at ananya.chetia@richmond.edu.

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