NYU Shanghai Elects New Student Government

NYU Shanghai students cast over 800 votes last month to elect a new group of Student Government leaders for the 2019-2020 school year.  

(Michael) Liu Qichen ’22 and Nate Hecimovich ’20 won the race for President and Vice President, respectively. The pair said they campaigned on a joint ticket to represent a broad swath of the NYU Shanghai student body. “We are not only in different grades, but we share different backgrounds, which means we can get as much information as possible from the student body,” said Liu, who is a freshman from Beijing, while his running mate is a junior from the U.S. state of Wisconsin.

Both Liu and Hecimovich attributed their campaign success to a strategy that encompassed a broad range of social media and a platform that focused on practical changes, like fixing the broken pool table in B1, improving the school’s textbook policy, and adding electrical outlets to library study spaces.

“I want to start from addressing these small and physical problems and furthermore to promote this sense of belongingness not only in NYU Shanghai, but also in student government,” Liu explained.

Improving communication between the student body and Student Government will also be a priority for the incoming team, who have proposed a WeChat program that will allow students to message Student Government directly. Liu said the idea was inspired by a program currently used by the student government at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, a university he worked with during his tenure on the 2018-2019 Student Government External Affairs Committee.

The pair has also pledged to address student concerns about procedures for dealing with sexual misconduct on campus and plan to work closely on this issue with the administration during their bi-weekly meetings.

Liu and Hecimovich said they are looking forward to collaborating with other Student Government committees. Newly elected Director of External Affairs and Qingdao native (Krystal) Li Xuening ’22 said she hopes to expand the popular  “Let Your NYU ID Open Doors” program, which works with local business to get discounts and special offers for NYU Shanghai students, to include businesses near student residence halls.

Newly elected Director of External Affairs Li Xuening (2nd from left) and Director of Student Events Shen Mengjie (4th from left) attend a student government conference at Xi’an Jiaotong University-Liverpool University with fellow members of the 2018-2019 NYU Shanghai External Affairs Committee.

Li also plans to increase opportunities for NYU Shanghai’s international students to take part in activities at Chinese universities in and around Shanghai. She hopes that broadening inter-institutional exchange will not only help NYU Shanghai students become more integrated in the greater Shanghai community, but will also help build bridges between social groups on campus. “I think the interaction between NYU Shanghai and other schools makes us - and especially makes me – love my school more,” Li explained.

(Jennie) Shen Mengjie ’22, the newly elected Director of Student Events, says she is also eager to work with Liu and Hecimovich on a joint plan to introduce a field day event to campus in 2019-2020. The Shanghai native is also looking forward to reviving the Fusion Music Festival, which brings together musical acts from university campuses across Shanghai.

From Left to Right: Ding Yuanchao, Director of Student Organizations; Anderson Lin, Director of Global Affairs; and Taylah L. Bland, Fall Senator to New York

(Leo) Ding Yuanchao ’22 from Jiangsu Province said he plans to encourage more student organizations to contribute to events organized by the Office of Student Life.

“Because of our colorful student life, it is sometimes hard for clubs to survive,” he said, explaining that given NYU Shanghai’s small size, it is often difficult for the campus’ many clubs to recruit members and drive up attendance at events. He said he plans to transform the current club enrollment fair into a showcase of student organizations’ activities and achievements.

Anderson Lin ’22, a native of São Paolo, Brazil and the newly elected Director of Global Affairs, also sees fostering student organizations as an important way to fulfill his mandate of uniting NYU Shanghai’s globally diverse student body while tightening bonds between NYU Shanghai and NYU’s global network. Lin said he  plans to explore international funding sources for student events and the student organizations that sponsor them. In order to ease the Study Away transition for NYU Shanghai students, he also hopes to find avenues for smoothing course equivalencies across NYU’s campuses throughout the world.

Taylah L. Bland ’21 of Australia rounds out the new Student Government as the Fall Senator to New York, a role she will fill as a Study Away student next year. Bland, who plans to study law after graduation, served as NYU Shanghai’s 2018-2019 Director of Global Affairs. As Senator, Bland says her primary duty is to “reinforce NYU Shanghai’s voice within that student government setting” to ensure that the NYU Student Government passes resolutions which take into account the full range of NYU Shanghai students’ experiences and identities.

Additional election winners included Vittoria Catherine Vitucci ’20, Director of Student Life and Residence, and Jennifer Chen ’22, NYU Shanghai’s first elected Director of Environmental Sustainability. An election for the new position of Director of Student Wellness Initiatives will be held next year.