Last Wednesday the results of the Associated Students (AS) elections for the 2024-2025 school year were announced. Aaron Villareal will step into the position of AS president and Liam Cristescu will serve as vice president of internal affairs.
The incoming College Senators for the 2024-2025 school year are:
Rylee Jue for the College of Arts and Humanities, Madalyn Mendoza for the College of Business, Cassie Rodriguez for the College of Education, Stephen Alvarado for the College of Health Sciences and Human Services, and Alyssa Walters for the College of Science.
Nearly 60 students gathered at Cal State Monterey Bay’s (CSUMB) Inter-Garrison Plaza to hear the results, enjoy free food and drinks and meet their new AS officers.
“It’s a big honor to see all the students and all the people that not only voted but also raised a lot of money, $300, for all the different clubs on campus,” said incoming President Villarreal.
A third-year business major, Villareal is hopeful about the future of CSUMB. “I think our campus has a lot of potential and a lot of opportunity to become one of the top notch schools,” he said.
“I’d say one of our big issues is that [CSUMB] is not known for having a big social life,” Villarreal said. “So my big goal is to really bring back that liveliness and that social aspect to our campus through [AS] events..
“What I plan to do in my role is really reach out to students … bridging that gap between administration and students,” said Villarreal.
“The best way to make sure that the students’ voices and opinions are being accurately represented are to make sure that the people they want in those positions are actually in those positions,” said Liam Cristescu, who will be serving his second term as vice president of internal affairs.
“I think [the election] went as well as it could have this year,” said fourth-year AS Elections Commissioner Kody Storms, who organized this year’s election.
“This was the most candidates we’ve ever had. Previous years have been like 5 to 6 [candidates]. This year we had 15 candidates,” said Storms. “The voting we have a harder time with … like 400 people [voted], which is low,” Storms said. “Not as many people voted as we wanted to, but ideally … the votes will be better next year.”