UA releases 2025 election results on March 21
Voter turnout decreases by 35.7%; referendum passes with 88.5% majority
Photo Provided by Katelyn Howard
On March 21, the Undergraduate Association (UA) Election Commission sent an email to the MIT undergraduate community with the 2025 UA Election results. This year’s ballot included the UA President and Vice President, one referendum, and 2026-2028 Class Councils.
1,359 undergraduates voted in the election, constituting 30.0% of the student population. 2,112 undergraduate students voted in the 2024 election, meaning that this year’s voter turnout decreased by 35.7%.
According to UA Election Commission Chair Diego Temkin ’26, the significant decrease in voter turnout may have resulted from “the limited number of contested races and the tight deadline before spring break.” The voting period for the 2025 UA Election began on March 17 at 8 a.m. and ended on March 21 at 5 p.m. Temkin said that the UA Election Commission is working on solutions to improve turnout and participation for future elections.
The referendum passed with 1,006 “Yes” votes and 131 “No” votes, which accounted for an overwhelming majority of 88.5%. This ballot measure called upon the MIT administration to “formally condemn the arrest” of Mahmoud Khalil and “publicly adopt a policy of non-collaboration with federal immigration enforcement agencies.” Furthermore, the referendum called upon the MIT administration to “publicly affirm its support” for the freedom of on-campus political speech.
According to the UA Election Code, the conditions in the binding referendum become the “official opinion” of the UA, meaning that the UA must “honor the referendum’s mandate to the best of its ability.” In an email to The Tech, UA President Enoch Ellis ’26 clarified that UA Officers have talked with senior administrative officers to honor the referendum’s results. The MIT administration, however, is not required to fulfill the demands in the referendum, as stated in Chancellor Nobles’ letter in 2024.
This year’s UA presidential election was uncontested. UA Education Chair Alice Hall ’26 was elected as President, and Mariam Abdelbarr ’27 was elected as Vice President (VP). “We are both extremely excited and honored that we have been elected,” Abdelbarr wrote in an email to The Tech. “Both of us are passionate about using our positions in a way that best serves the interests of the student body.”
Comments and feedback for the UA elections can be sent to ua-elect@mit.edu.