Following the adjournment of the final meeting of the 27th UGS, the inaugural meeting of the 28th UGS began Wednesday with the inauguration of Jared Hammerstrom ’27 and Celeste Vargas ’27 as the ASSU president and vice president respectively.
Both Hammerstrom and Vargas previously served as members of the 27th UGS — Hammerstrom as treasurer and Vargas as chair of appropriations. The duo ran under the “FARM-RAISED” platform, which garnered 58.21% of the vote.
In the final meeting of the 27th Undergraduate Senate (UGS), outgoing Chair David Sengthay ’26 gave a presentation on its accomplishments, discussing the bills, funding and other measures passed by the body over the past year.
“We chose as a body to act first, to respond fast when things were in crisis, when decisions were affecting students and… when things weren’t working from prior cycles procedurally,” Sengthay said.
In his presentation, Sengthay emphasized the bills and resolutions passed and funding approved by the senate, with over $4.5 million in annual grants and $1 million in weekly funding awarded to voluntary student organizations (VSOs).
Sengthay also highlighted the UGS’ work to advocate for equity through bills supporting the reinstatement of land acknowledgements, opposing federal immigration enforcement, championing fair housing and labor policies, supporting the Resident Assistant (RA) union, reinstating cooperative houses and enacting procedural reform.
“The point of this year’s term… was to make it clear that an activist spirit in an undergraduate senate is not a luxury; it is the baseline obligation of a student government in this political moment,”, said Sengthay said.
Reflecting on the changes he has noticed on campus during his time as a student, such as the removal of a ‘No Justice, No Peace’ sign outside of Green Library that was no longer “in line with [the University’s] values,” Sengthay added that “now is more timely than ever for this Undergraduate Senate and future ones to meet this moment with urgency, poise, and calculation.”
Hammerstrom credited Sengthay as a mentor to him throughout his time in the ASSU.
“I think he truly embodies what a good Stanford student leader is; we all know how much he’s done for the ASSU,” Hammerstrom said. Hammerstrom added that he plans to follow in Sengthay’s footsteps as ASSU president, praising Sengthay’s “ability to advocate for students.”
“He’s really taught me so much about how to work together as a team and create this ‘one Stanford’ notion,” Hammerstrom said.
After the inauguration of the ASSU executive branch, the 28th UGS appointed positions within the body, beginning with the appointment of Laila Ali ’28 and Troy Harris ’27 as the Senate’s co-chairs. Ali previously served as the co-chair of political action and Harris previously served as co-chair of health and safety. They emphasized their experience in advocating for students while serving in the 27th UGS, including passing bills to add on-campus voting booths for the upcoming California election and working on expanding gym hours for students.
“We’ve followed through on a lot of the concerns that we’ve heard from students to create real change, and we would love to continue doing that this upcoming year”, said Ali.
The UGS also appointed other mandatory positions. Nason Li ’29, a newly elected UGS senator and former Senate Associate Program (SAP) member, was appointed as deputy chair. Former deputy chair Minji Cho ’28 was appointed as treasurer. Anna Roth ’28 was reappointed as parliamentarian.
Dan Kubota ’27, former chair of administration and rules, was appointed as both faculty senate representative and appropriations chair. In these positions, Kubota will serve as the UGS’ representative at biweekly faculty senate meetings and organize the UGS’ funding, both weekly through quick and reserve grants and yearly through annual grants.