The Student Union 2023-2024 Election Season began March 30. Along with introducing new positions, they also announced that the Junior and Senior Borough Student Advisory Council (BSAC) positions will no longer be available. The BSACs previously attended monthly meetings in other high schools within the Queens North region to determine what goals the borough collectively has. 

Senior Class President Benjamin Babayev, who helped to determine the final positions for this election, said, “The Queens BSAC meetings have not been occurring this year and those positions [will] be deemed inactive [for] the following year.” 

Replacing the position of Junior BSAC, the SU agreed on the addition of Senate Chair, being an extension of the Senate Speaker role. All current freshmen, sophomores, and juniors are eligible to run for this position. The Senate Chair will be responsible for attending all SU meetings, overseeing senate elections, senator concerns, and reporting all senate matters at SU and Consultative Council Meetings. Additionally, they will be responsible for creating Senate slides, leading Senate meetings, and managing all Senate subcommittees, including Peer Tutoring, Event Planning, and Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. When asked about the end of the position, current Junior BSAC Tasnim Hossain said she would have liked to find ways for the position to continue “but at the moment the best option [is] to remove the position.”

The new Senior Class Vice President position will replenish the vacancy of Senior BSAC. In order to be eligible to run for this position, the student must be a junior. The Senior Class Vice President will be responsible for attending all necessary SU meetings, running Senior Council Meetings arranged with the Senior Class Advisor, leading social media communication, overseeing fundraising efforts for senior dues, helping plan senior events, and fulfilling Senior Class President duties when the SCP is not present. When asked about the addition of this position, Benjamin said, “This year, the work of Senior Class President has greatly expanded and I’ve had help from Sophia Kouchtaf, an unofficially elected Senior Class Vice President, in planning events. I created that position to ensure the success of next year’s senior class moving forward.”

Coordinator of Student Activities Jaime Baranoff said,“We hope that adding these positions to the SU board will help our operations run more smoothly and efficiently, giving more students the opportunity to participate, and allowing more student voices to be heard within the SU.”