Student Life has concluded the results for the Student Leadership Council (SLC) elections on March 17. A total of 338 ballots were collected. In order for a ballot to be valid, students need to meet the requirement of being a registered student with at least one credit hour at COD. Faculty and staff who were also enrolled in at least one credit hour were also eligible to vote. 

According to the 2023 Spring student profile, the headcount of students this semester comes to almost 24,000 students, meaning that less than 1.5% of students participated in the recent student election. Trustee Candidate Rai, the newly elected Student Trustee, said that those numbers are typical for student elections.

“Only 200 to 500 of [students] actually vote each year,” Rai said. “And we really only hear from the few and the loudest who reach out to us with their concerns.”

Rai was elected to the position of Student Trustee for the term of 2023-24 with a total of 209 votes. The student trustee sits on COD’s Board of Trustees and represents the voice of the student body. This is Rai’s first position within SLC and she describes the launch as a sudden shift of what she’s used to.

“I’ve always been more of a wallflower type of person,” Rai said. “It was nothing that I ever imagined for myself.”

The new student trustee wants to serve the COD community to the best ability within her year long position.

“It’s not about me,” Rai said. “It’s about me being the bridge or the vessel to amplify their voices to leave this sort of legacy behind.”

Rai was also elected to an officer’s seat in the SLC alongside Carlos Muñoz, Ayesha Shafiuddin, Angel Hernandez, Zohaib Syed Quadri and Asma Yawari. 

First time SLC officer Muñoz said that one of the things that he wants to focus on is bridging the gap between the SLC and the COD student body.

“I’m certain that is one of the problems that we have,” he said. “Students don’t come to the SLC office because they just see meetings and formality, and they just walk away.”

Muñoz believes that by implementing SLC hosted activities, COD students will feel more comfortable and connected to their representatives. For him, this is an important task to accomplish because he wants to give back to the COD community and for SLC for giving him a community.

“When I first started at COD, I had this feeling like ‘just go to school, go to my classes and graduate,” Muñoz said. “I didn’t have that sense of belonging. When I started at SLC, there was a shift. So that’s something I want to give in return. I want to shift and change that perspective of students.” 

At the bottom of the ballot, students were encouraged to pick up to three issues that related to them the most. The academics, motivation and time management category ranked the highest, with the mental health, anxiety and stress category following as second highest and the diversity, equity, inclusion, access, social justice and human rights ranking third. 

COD students can reach out to SLC via their email on the COD website. SLC also has an open comment section at the beginning of their meeting every Tuesday at 2 p.m. in the Student Services Center, Room 2214. More information about meetings can be found on their Chaplife page.