The Associated Students election commission held the 2023 A.S. election results party on Thursday at the Student Union.
The new A.S. elected members' term begins June 1, 2023.
Sarab Multani, public health sophomore and the newly elected A.S. president, currently serves as the mental health chairman for Delta Sigma Phi, a fraternity at San Jose State.
“It is not only an honor but a huge responsibility,” Multani said. “I look forward to hearing out many communities around campus in ways we can integrate cultural awareness and increase our sense of belonging.”
Multani said he decided to run for president because of his experience in team satisfaction and public health.
“My perspective allows for a person who prioritizes student wellbeing and representation,” he said. “I aim to make A.S. more integrated with every student's input so the people on campus feel part of our transformative culture.”
Multani said his three goals are to increase the sense of belonging for students, improve academic resources and raise awareness of ways students can get involved on campus.
He said he plans to make an annual calendar with important registration dates, job fairs, student involvement opportunities and cultural events around campus.
“We can highlight our diverse campus and learn more about peers through celebrating each other's culture together,” Multani said. “The integration and perspective of all the different cultures on our campus would be a beautiful experience for all our students.”
Multani said he plans to work with the new A.S. Board by ensuring everyone has an equal voice.
“I would like the community to know I will be easy to communicate with and will work my absolute hardest to make SJSU memorable and transformational for all.” Multani said. “I genuinely look forward to hearing as many students' input as possible.”
Sidhant Sadawarti, computer engineering junior and newly elected A.S. director of communications, will manage the A.S. social media accounts.
“I’m too excited, I'm out of words right now,” said Sadawarti said.
Sadawarti said his role will be to engage students at A.S. events.
He said he’s passionate for photography and videography, which led to his decision to run for director of communications.
Sadawarti said he wants students to attend A.S. events to meet more people.
“You go to high school for studies but in college you go for exposure and get to know people’s cultures,” Sadawarti said. “Our lives are based upon experiences and interactions we share with each other, if you don’t do that then how are we different from animals?”
Business administration sophomore Nicholas Koprowski was the chief elections officer for this current election cycle.
“My job this year as chief elections officer was to run a fair and ethical election that attracts as much of the student population as possible,” Koprowski said.
Koprowski said this year’s election was advertised through flyers throughout campus, events on campus and videos on social media.
“We had QR codes posted all over campus that students could scan and it takes them directly to the voting app,” Koprowski said. “I can’t name the exact number but it was roughly about 2600 students who voted.”
Kingson Leung, interim senior associate director for A.S., supports the student government department, including the board of directors and student election commission.
“Associate students have been around for 125 years and we are the voice, the student body population, and all of our elected appointed members,” Leung said. “Our board is made up of 13 students that vote on various policy legislation and advocate for resources that are serving our larger SJSU committee.”
He said there were double the number of candidates this year compared to last year.
“We have many students interested in serving and being of a higher responsibility as a leader to help support what our student needs,” Leung said. “Especially coming out of hybrid and remote, we’re really trying to create a better community for our students now who are eager to get the resources and support they need to graduate.”
