Editor's note (4:02 p.m. 9/15/2025): The "Unity4UB" party's Dylan Kleehammer is no longer running for SA Senate and his name will not be on the ballot. The number of total candidates is now 19.
Twenty candidates — six parties and three independent candidates — are competing for 12 seats on the undergraduate Student Association (SA) Senate for the ‘25-26 year: a rare instance when the candidates outnumber the Senate seats.
Low participation is a recurring theme in the yearly SA Senate elections, with recent years having all candidates set to secure a seat even before the voting period starts. Seven candidates ran for Senate last year and only four ran in both the ‘22-23 and the ‘21-22 elections.
Only the ‘23-24 Senate elections had seen an uptick in participation with 28 candidates in the running for 12 spots.
SA Senate — composed of 12 elected senators and 12 ex-officio voting members — allocates the $4.5 million plus the SA budget — funded through the $109 mandatory student activity fee — and advocates on issues on behalf of the student body.
The largest student party in this election is the “Unity4UB” party, with Arya Dixit, Sierra Fernandez, Dylan Kleehammer, Piyush Ohri, Aidan Thomas and Gavin Krauciunas as contenders. Krauciunas served as SA senate chairperson last year and ran for SA president during last spring’s officer elections.
A close second in size, “The Student Voice” party brings Aeaad Alawaad, Michelangelo Fontana, Ismat Haque, Grant Peterson and Rima Saeed into the race.
TJ Ledwith and Cole DeVantier — SA senators last year — are running under the “Engineers ‘R’ Us” party, with newcomer Adam Bilali.
Three one-person parties are making it on the ballot, with two familiar faces and one newcomer. Pranavan Balachandran and Joshua Brodsky are under the “REAL” party and “UB Forward” parties respectively, with both previous competitors in last spring’s SA officer elections. Sanjeev Khatiwada will be entering an SA election for the first time under the “Bulls” party.
Iakra Lucky, Tiffany Verdugo and Owen Walker will all be running as independent candidates.
Students must obtain at least fifty signatures from current UB undergraduate students to qualify as candidates.
Undergraduates can start voting at 9:00 a.m. Sept. 15 until 4:00 p.m. Sept. 19 on UB Linked.
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