The Student Assembly announced the results of its Fall 2024 election on Monday. Four freshmen and one transfer student were chosen from 11 freshman and three transfer student candidates. Freshmen and transfer students received digital ballots to vote in their respective elections between Nov. 20 and Nov. 24.
The Sun spoke with the five elected representatives to learn more about what they hope to accomplish while in the assembly.
Freshman Representatives
This year’s elected freshman representatives include Daniel Addoquaye ’28, John Purcell ’28, Thor Waguespack ’28 and Jinzhou Wu ’28.
In total, 1077 valid votes were cast from eligible students. The election took the form of ranked-choice voting, and according to the seventh round of counting, Wu received 325 votes, Waguespack received 180 votes, Addoquaye received 171 votes and Purcell received 152 votes.
In an interview with The Sun, Purcell emphasized his hope to foster a close-knit community within both the freshman body and the University.
“I live in Donlon, and that in and of itself is a tight-knit community,” Purcell said. “Living with so many different people and creating those bonds has shown me what Cornell as a whole can really be like.”
Drawing on this experience, Purcell hopes to organize more community-oriented events in the future, such as a class-wide sunset-watching on Libe Slope or peer-on-peer counseling sessions.
Purcell also emphasized that mental health awareness is his greatest priority.
“Creating more spaces and even just advocating for more mental health days can go a long way,” he said. “I want to create an atmosphere where everyone can feel comfortable and connected to those around them.”
Waguespack echoed similar sentiments to Purcell, promoting more accessible drop-in hours and mental health days.
“Students should never have to jump through so many hoops to get the help that they need,” Waguespack said. “We’re living in the past, but we shouldn’t have to be.”
Waguespack also highlighted practical reforms, including streamlining the housing portal website, improving dining options and expanding free Tompkins Consolidated Area Transit passes to upperclassmen.
Primarily though, Waguespack champions transparency, aiming to make the assembly more approachable and focused on student concerns.
“There are a lot of things that most undergraduates collectively want, like extended dining hours,” Waguespack said. “I want to hone in on those concerns and keep the Student Assembly actually working for the students.”
Echoing Waguespack’s focus on student concerns when it comes to dining, Addoquaye plans to advocate for more food options in the dining halls, a suggestion he says he has heard from many students.
Addoquaye also wants to foster more accessible communication between freshmen and their representatives.
“Something I want to do in this position as freshman representative is not only collaborate with my fellow representatives … but have a social media account or another source for freshmen to reach out directly to us,” Addoquaye said.
Another issue Addoquaye wants to tackle is building career opportunities early on for freshmen. He wants to expand access to career services for underclassmen by increasing the career center’s outreach to them.
“As for careers … [I want to] expand the outreach of the career center to freshmen. [The career center] focuses more on upperclassmen, so we should start [access to internships] with freshmen, to have career advancement on the freshman timeline,” Addoquaye said.
Wu primarily aims to bridge the gap between the assembly and the students. Wu said that before he ran for the assembly, he did not know how to contact any representative, and he wants that to change.
“My goal is to establish a continuous communication channel between representatives and students,” Wu said. “The students should know what’s going on inside the S.A. — if proposals are not being addressed and what is [actually] being addressed.”
Like fellow representatives, Wu said he wants to learn what the students need to make sure they feel “truly represented.”
“The representatives need to know what are the problems that students care about before we actually dive into solving them,” he said.
Transfer Representative
Michael O’Donnell ’27 was elected as this year’s transfer representative. O’Donnell received 51 votes out of the 93 total valid votes cast.
After studying at Fordham University for his freshman year, O’Donnell transferred to Cornell to study Industrial and Labor Relations through the Transfer Option. His focus areas as transfer representative include student spirit, engagement and approachability.
To increase spirit, O’Donnell hopes to work with Student and Campus Life to provide more Cornell merchandise to transfer students so they can “proudly affiliate” with the University, he said.
For O’Donnell, recreational clubs are a critical part of the student experience. He aims to help these clubs “go out and do great things,” like participating in national events to garner popularity and further Cornell’s excellence.
In an interview with The Sun, O’Donnell emphasized the importance of creating a comfortable space for transfer students to advocate for themselves. He said that any transfer student should feel empowered to stand with him in front of the assembly with reasonable concerns or requests.
Varsha Bhargava, Jeremiah Jung and Theodora Curtin are Sun contributors and can be reached at [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected].