The Howard University Elections Commission announced student leaders for the 2023-2024 academic session on Friday, March 31 outside Frederick Douglass Hall. The announcement was broadcasted live via Instagram. 

After nearly three weeks of active campaigns, voting was open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on March 30. Prospective college council leaders were required to be enrolled full-time with a grade point average of at least 2.7 out of 4.0 and could only vie for one elected position.

While candidates for the Howard University Student Association President and Vice President roles ran together on the same ticket, prospective senators and executive council leaders for each college at Howard including the College of Engineering and Architecture (CEA), the College of Arts and Sciences (COAS), the School of Business, (SOB), the School of Communications, (SOC) the College of Nursing and Health Sciences (CNAHS), the Chadwick Boseman College of Fine Arts, and the School of Education (SOE) contested independently.

Candidates hung approved campaign flyers on notice boards in dorms or academic buildings other than the Mordecai Wyatt Johnson Administration Building and the Rankin Memorial Chapel. According to Howard’s Elections Code, candidates were allowed to publicize their manifestos via lobbying and social media but were restricted from campaigning in these buildings.

Students were also restricted from defacing windows and classroom chalkboards with campaign material.

Nearly 200 undergraduate and graduate students campaigned for roughly 40 positions across colleges and departments. Most were students vying for Undergraduate Student Assembly and Howard University Student Association Senate seats. Each school or college had at least two seats in the Senate, regardless of class size. Schools with more than 500 students had one seat for every 500 students enrolled, according to a statement from the Senate Elections Committee.

Thus, while the College of Fine Arts and the College of Education had two seats each, the School of Business had five. The College of Engineering and Architecture and the College of Nursing and Health Sciences had four seats each. The College of Arts and Sciences, known to have the largest number of students at Howard, had ten seats in the Senate.

Charis Haynes and Ayomi Fadaka, both undergraduates majoring in Biology, pledged $50 Chipotle and Starbucks gift card giveaways to Instagram followers who publicized their campaigns to represent the College of Arts and Sciences in the Senate.

The week preceding the elections was full of such social media campaigns. A chemical engineering student, Isaiah Roberts, created an Instagram account called “Thrive CEA,” campaigning to be Vice President of the College of Engineering and Architecture Council. Roberts jointly campaigned with Langston Locke, a fellow chemical engineering student who contested to be President. While Isaiah Roberts won the position with 395 votes within CEA and no opponent, Langston Locke lost to Pelumi Adebayo, a mechanical engineering student.

Adebayo, President-elect of the College of Engineering and Architecture Council, says he intends to promote student-faculty engagement and foster an innovative community amongst undergraduate students from the five departments within the engineering school.

Oluwaseun Kolade, an economics student in the College of Arts and Sciences, feels Howard offers a great sense of community, although the plethora of societies and fairs could feel daunting. Kolade believes the ballot was lengthy; she couldn’t put faces to some of the candidate’s names. Nonetheless, she believes Howard is a great space for student leaders.

Aside from claims of errors on some ballots for students in the School of Law, Howard’s staff and students have widely accepted the elections without disputes. In response to the ballot errors, the Office of Campus Life announced a subsequent election for law students on April 6, 2023.

Student voters appreciate the timely release of the results, while elected leaders look forward to beginning their appointments in the forthcoming session.