Zeyhana: Zeynep Bromberg and Hana Kim

Platform: ★★★★☆
The Zeyhana campaign presented a comprehensive policy platform, clearly outlining their positions and plans for the upcoming year, which include many promising ideas for the senior class. However, not all of their promises seemed achievable, especially given their record of not fulfilling the campaign promises they had made in last year’s election.

Record: ★★★☆☆
Bromberg has extensive Student Union experience as Junior Caucus Co-President and Sophomore Caucus Events Coordinator. Kim also has experience in student government, having served as secretary of the SU task force, the Student Leadership Team, and the external affairs department, as well as the coordinator of the SophFrosh Semiformal. The Junior Caucus successfully organized a movie night and the Junior Prom. However, the Junior Caucus failed to implement many of their other policies, such as the proposed idea to have student artwork displayed in the school, and it did not send out monthly newsletters throughout the whole year. Because they were unable to put many of their proposals into action themselves, many of their proposals were taken over and implemented by the Student Union instead.

Campaign: ★★★★★
Zeyhana campaigned well; they attended the Senior Caucus debate, presented their case strongly, and were respectful of the opposing ticket.

The Zeyhana campaign, led by Junior Caucus President Zeynep Bromberg and junior Hana Kim, has realistic policies. The main aspects of the campaign focus on changing the caucus’s structure to make it more inclusive all year round, communicating efficiently with the senior class, helping seniors through the college application process, and celebrating the completion of both the college process and their senior year generally through a multitude of events, most notably prom and graduation.

Zeyhana plans to implement blind applications, which they hope will increase the diversity of experiences within the caucus. Furthermore, as Junior Caucus President, Bromberg has noticed that many students want to join the caucus midway through the year; the current system bars students who might not be interested or able to join caucus at the start of the school year from participating in the caucus in any way for the rest of the year. To remedy this issue, Zeyhana will open applications for specific events and initiatives throughout the year.

College applications are perhaps the defining part of one’s senior year at Stuyvesant. Zeyhana has numerous policies to make this stressful time of year as easy as possible. For one, Zeyhana plans on establishing a partnership between ARISTA, the Writing Center, and Senior Caucus, which will allow seniors to have their essays edited multiple times by experienced editors. Kim’s experience as a member of ARISTA and an editor at the Writing Center gives a basis to this proposal because she understands the inner-workings of both organizations. Zeyhana will also implement a calendar system to help seniors keep track of important due dates, such as college applications, scholarship applications, and senior dues.

Unlike previous campaign promises to send out weekly e-mails, Zeyhana has set their eyes on a streamlined and concise newsletter (either biweekly or monthly) that would only contain information pertinent to the senior class. Bromberg elaborated, “The idea is that those newsletters would not have student opportunity ‘need to knows.’ It would be ‘this is what the senior class needs to know [or] this is what Senior Caucus is working on’; it is short and sweet and just the highlights of what is going on [among] the senior class.” They emphasized making communication efficient and accessible to seniors, as they were concerned that the current format of information is presented in a confusing manner. Zeyhana also mentioned a feedback form in the newsletter, which allows students to provide feedback to the caucus.

A critical part of the Zeyhana campaign is senior-only events. Besides prom and graduation, Zeyhana hopes to continue the current Senior Caucus’s initiative to stream movies in the atrium. In order to combat low-turnout, they plan to schedule these events on dates where many students will be available, such as after college applications have been submitted. Zeyhana was slightly concerned about the turnout given that the events will be seniors-only and few juniors came to the Junior Caucus-hosted movie night this past year. Among all the senior events, prom is perhaps the most important event, but its price of $220 makes it difficult for many students to attend. Zeyhana hopes to combat this by providing aid to students who qualify for reduced lunch. While the intention behind the plan is good, all of the money used would come from fundraising—a somewhat risky and unreliable method—and Zeyhana lacks a clear estimate of exactly how much prom tickets would be reduced by.

In addition, Bromberg and Kim have good chemistry with each other. During our interview, the two of them played off each other well, switching off questions. Both seemed well-acquainted with the ins and outs of their platform, though Bromberg seemed to somewhat dominate the conversation, which is understandable given that she is the incumbent.

Ultimately, The Spectator endorses the Zeyhana campaign for Senior Caucus. We were very impressed by the organization and clarity within their campaign as well as their ambitious goals for Senior Caucus.

Correction: A previous version of this article stated that Hana Kim had "minimal" experience in student government. In fact, she has served as secretary of the SU task force, the Student Leadership Team, and the external affairs department, as well as the coordinator of the SophFrosh Semiformal.