On Saturday, via a post on the NYU Abu Dhabi Student Life Facebook page, the winners for the Student Government elections were announced. Juliana Bello was elected to the role of Officer of Communications, with no other contenders. Vicky Critchlow was announced as the new Officer for Student Activities, out of four candidates, and Chris Wheeler was elected as the representative for the class of 2019, out of nine candidates.

Bello sees transparency as key and has made this the centrepiece of her platform for the Officer of Communications role.

“I love transparency ... You’re going to see a lot of transparency, from me, from student government,” said Bello

Another concern for Bello was a perceived lack of professionalism in the communication between Student Government and the student body. Bello suggested that she would prefer to use email more frequently. However, at the Candidates Forum, Bello also indicated that there will still be a significant Student Government presence across all social media platforms and noted that she will be making an official Student Government Snapchat, if elected. Bello suggested that any concerned students should find her in her kiddie pool, which will be located outside A6C.

“If you come by you’ll see me there. The kiddie pool is my ultimate favorite place to communicate with anyone,” said Bello.

Critchlow, in her role as the Officer of Student Activities, said that she would focus on encouraging inter-Student Interest Group activities and would also create an anonymous forum where student can bring their concerns if they felt uncomfortable talking with SIG leaders directly.

Critchlow also highlighted her position as an intermediary between SIGs and the Student Funding Board and assured students she will effectively communicate any decisions made on their behalf.

Wheeler notes that the position of being the class representative involves getting to know his classmates as closely as possible, and he endeavors to do that as part of his role. As the freshmen class has only been on campus for a short period of time, Wheeler emphasized how open he is to talking to the entire class and finding out what the issues that they face are. Wheeler also noted that he would make sure more freshmen are aware of and involved with Student Government.