By Ben Lauren PZ ’25

With a record number of ballots collected Pitzer College has officially elected its new executive board for the upcoming school year, led by its incoming President Elect Paa Thompson PZ ’25. Thompson narrowly edged out runner up Isa Iqbal PZ ’26 in a nail biting final round of the ranked choice vote that saw Thompson receive 281 votes to Iqbal’s 244.

The results were announced on March 6 in an email sent to students by incumbent Senate President Sanya Dhama PZ ’24, who wrote the election’s turnout of 54.2% of the student body, with 623 ballots submitted, was the highest in the Senate’s history.

The wave of votes appears to prove Student Senate’s aggressive, multifaceted campaign to increase voter turnout highly successful — a significant improvement from 2023’s turnout of 34.7% of the student body. In addition to the expected wave of emails sent to the Student Talk listserv, posters across campus, and a presidential debate, the Senate’s elections committee held an event titled “Elections & Empanadas” to celebrate the commencement of voting. Senators were also seen throughout campus offering root beer floats to students who had voted.

Two other candidates, Junior Class President Sara Kimura PZ ’25 and Senator Elena Fields PZ ’25 ran against Thompson and Iqbal as well.

In addition to Thompson, a number of other students landed seats on the Senate’s executive board: Vice President (VP) of Internal Affairs Jasmine Ali PZ ’26, VP of External Affairs Richard Julian Ampah PZ ’25, VP of Finance Ella Hale PZ ’26, VP of Student Engagement Siya Bhola PZ ’25, and VP of Diversity Lola Latan PZ ’25.

Thompson, an international student from Ghana majoring in Data Science and Economics, ran on a platform of enhancing student welfare and promoting inclusion and diversity. In an email sent to students on Feb. 27 announcing his candidacy, he emphasized his desire to work collaboratively and effectively with faculty and students.

“I believe that the first step towards meaningful change is acknowledging that no single person holds all the answers,” Thompson wrote in the email. “The beauty of our Pitzer community lies in our diversity, our shared experiences, and, most importantly, in our collective wisdom and resilience.”

Thompson’s goals for student welfare involved two key items: The establishment of a Quantitative Skills Center and the further development of the Career Services office. Modeled after the formula of Pitzer’s Writing Center and similar programs at the other 5Cs, Thompson believes the Quantitative Skills Center will “significantly enhance STEM education support for all Pitzer students.”

Career Services, meanwhile, is an office which already exists, but one which Thompson explained could become a more effective resource for students.

“I have a bunch of senior friends who are graduating in a month and a half and they don’t have jobs,” Thompson said in an interview with The Outback. “[I want] to have a more structured, more robust Career Services office and make sure that support is sustained … You could go for help and [instead of them saying], ‘go apply on Handshake or look on this site instead,’ they’d say ‘let’s connect you to this … Pitzer alum.”

Thompson is also looking to provide stronger resources to international students like himself, advocating specifically for the implementation of a mentorship program at Pitzer that goes beyond the traditional orientation experience.

“You have a fun orientation group [where] you go camping or kayaking,” Thompson said. “That sounds nice, but beyond that … do you have someone you’re looking up to who’s doing what you think you want to do? … Someone to show you the ropes … that could connect you to the resources that may be of use to you.”

Although she explained she doesn’t know Thompson well personally, Dhama believes his energy, charisma, and clearly defined goals impressed her during the presidential debate. Still, she provided her successor with prudent advice.

“I think it’s a balance between your own initiatives but also realizing that you are leading the Senate and also a representative of the student body,” Dhama said. “We’ve faced a lot this year in every single avenue. So I think I expect a successful successor to be able to be there for the students, no matter what avenue that is — whether it’s student wellness [or] whether it’s advocacy initiatives — and be able to maintain the strong Senate that we have going.”

Expanding on Dhama’s idea of unequivocally supporting the student body, Thompson emphasized his commitment to pushing back against administration when necessary. He also advocated for students to get involved and write legislation themselves.

“Every leader definitely has to be a mouthpiece for the people they’re leading,” he said. “I can be very persistent … It doesn’t matter if we need to go 20 times … I definitely want to carry on the work Sanya is doing like having more students and more senators write legislation … it’s gonna give students a chance to see what they want, not what someone else thinks is good for them.”

However, Dhama made clear how important it is for the Senate president to maintain a good relationship with administration in order to be able to effectively advocate for students. She explained that when negotiating a contentious and divisive issue — such as her support for the Senate’s resolution to suspend the college’s approved study abroad program with the University of Haifa in Israel, which will be voted on during Pitzer’s next College Council meeting on April 11 — the president must understand their position as a mediator.

“Every leader definitely has to be a mouthpiece for the people they’re leading,” Paa Thompson PZ ’25 said. “I can be very persistent”

“Especially everything with Haifa and other things you are negotiating, you are being understanding of everyone’s side, but also there are some red lines,” Dhama said. “There was no way I was going to pull the resolution from College Council because that [represents] the voice of the students and that is your role [to uphold]. So being able to forward students’ voices while maintaining good relationships I think is the most important part.”

According to Dhama, she and Pitzer President Strom C. Thacker have had biweekly lunches throughout the academic year. She explained they have allowed them to understand each other’s perspectives better, and for Thacker to know Dhama is negotiating in good faith. She believes this has helped make progress between them during discussions regarding the suspension of the Haifa program.

“I think it was very important that we had known each other before all this started,” Dhama said. “I remember something we talked about during the [Haifa resolution] town hall, a lot of fingers were directly pointed at President Thacker before he even said anything about the subject. And he directly said, ‘if I didn’t know you, and I know you didn’t have good intentions for this, I may have felt like I was put on the spot.’ And that could have been a breach of trust right there. But … we’ve been working a lot together and we don’t agree on a lot of things and that’s okay.”

Thompson hopes to “carry the torch” from Dhama in standing behind not just the Haifa resolution, but any legislation which represents the voices of the student body.

“We all know what’s going on right now is a blatant violation of basic human rights and to see such programs still being run is just appalling,” Thompson said. “If there’s pushback from administration we’re going to do this again and we’re going to do it until there’s a response.”

Reflecting on her time as president during an incredibly tumultuous school year, Dhama expressed that the ability to learn on the fly and self-compassion were key ideas she learned on the job. Dhama also highlighted the joy in creating “silly and small things” around campus such as restarting the fountain on The Mounds.

“It’s given me really great opportunities to meet people that I didn’t know before and worked with a lot of great organizers and it’s been one of the most challenging roles that I’ve had,” Dhama said. “But I’m extremely grateful [and] very lucky to have the executive board that I have to work with.”

Thompson appears to already be taking much of Dhama’s advice to heart as he looks to take office next year.

“I try not to be excited so I don’t set high hopes for myself and then they’re not met,” he said. “But I’m excited to learn. I’m excited to embrace the challenge and take this as far as I can.”