Spicer and Ravikumar elected next UA President and Vice President, respectively
Undergraduates also voted on class council members and three referendum questions
THE TECH
David Spicer ’23 and Shruti Ravikumar ’23 were elected to serve as the next Undergraduate Association (UA) President and Vice President, respectively, UA Chair of the Election Commission Kelvin Green II ’22 announced in an April 6 email to the MIT community. Spicer and Ravikumar ran against presidential candidate Ananya Gurumurthy ’23 and vice presidential candidate Lexi So ’23.
Green wrote that of the 1,753 ballots cast in the UA Presidential and Vice Presidential election, 914 (52.1%) ranked Spicer and Ravikumar first while 782 (44.6%) ranked Gurumurthy and So first. Green added that there was a “historic turnout” this election cycle, with 42.3% of the undergraduate student body casting ballots April 1–5.
Spicer and Ravikumar’s platform addressed eight major topics, including increasing community well-being; reforming the MIT educational experience; increasing support for career and professional development; promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion; acting to achieve greater sustainability; holding MIT accountable on both social and political fronts; increasing inclusivity, transparency, and engagement in the UA; and making mental health resources more “accessible, equitable, and diverse.”
Gurumurthy and So’s platform focused on their slogan, “Enable. Engage, Empower!” They wrote that they would “enable” students by ensuring “all student groups have a seat at the table” when the UA is making significant decisions or interacting with MIT administration; “engage” undergraduates by increasing the relevance and transparency of the UA and collecting data to convince administration to make changes; and “empower” students by educating students about the MIT bureaucracy and increasing UA support for community members in need.
In addition to voting for the UA presidential ticket, the non-senior undergraduates cast ballots for their class councils.
535 students voted in the 2023 Class Council elections. Anna Sun ’23, Christina Chen ’23, Bhuvna Murthy ’23, and Amanda Hu ’23 were elected president, vice president, secretary, and treasurer, respectively. David Lu ’23 and Nisarg Dharia ’23 were elected social chairs; Ashar Farooq ’23 and McKinley Polen ’23 were elected publicity chairs.
In the only contested class council race, Penny Brant ’24 was elected president of the Class of 2024 with 56.2% of the 549 voters ranking her first while her opponent, George Bian ’24, was ranked first by 32.4% of voters. Amelia Hu ’24, Helen Wang ’24, Waly Ndiaye ’24, and Sarah Wei ’24 were elected vice president, secretary, social chair, and publicity chair, respectively. In a write-in vote for the position of Treasurer, Paul Irvine ’24 received the most (33) write-ins.
In the 2025 Class Council elections, 474 voters elected Anesu Nhamo ’25, Arya Sasne ’25, Grace Li ’25, Ji Won Kim ’25, and Yajvan Ravan ’25, were elected president, vice president, secretary, treasurer, and social chair, respectively, while Miles Hartley ’25 and Megha Vemuri ’25 were elected publicity chairs.
Three referendum questions were also up for voting this election cycle. The first asked if MIT should “disclose the entire holdings of MIT’s endowment investments, including specific funds/companies, to MIT community members on an annual basis”; the second asked if MIT should “divest from the fossil fuel industry, defined as any company or entity whose primary business is the sourcing, extraction, production, and/or transportation of fossil fuels (coal, oil, or natural gas)”; and the third asked if MIT should “institute a standing committee with equal representation among undergraduate students, graduate students, alumni, and faculty to establish and enforce assessable ethical investing guidelines.”
Among respondents who did not abstain, 89.2% (of 1,720) indicated “yes” to the first question, 92.8% (of 1,786) indicated “yes” to the second question, and 90.6% (of 1,707) indicated “yes” to the third question.