Ria Massoni-Nesman for Undergraduate President

The Polytechnic endorses Ria Massoni-Nesman ’24 for Undergraduate President. The Polytechnic believes that Massoni’s dedication to connecting the undergraduate student body and improving the Arch program will make her a successful Undergraduate President.

Massoni served as both vice president and president of her class; The Polytechnic believes these roles make her highly qualified to assist and relate to the incoming first-year class. Her work as Panhellenic Director of Communications also shows The Polytechnic that she has the skills to establish communication channels across different groups.

A large portion of Massoni’s campaign emphasizes the importance of communication between the class councils, administration, and the undergraduate student body. In her interview with The Polytechnic, Massoni mentioned that not all class councils communicate the same way. To solve this problem, she intends on reinstating class email lists in order to standardize communication and ensure that councils reach their respective student bodies. The Polytechnic believes this would greatly benefit Class Councils as it would allow all classes to communicate essential information without having to rely on students joining a third-party chat.

Massoni’s plan to communicate between students and the Undergraduate Council involves creating a newsletter, expanding the Council’s social media platforms, and improving the Student Government website. Her vision of the Student Government website advertises upcoming events, issues that Student Government are addressing with administrators, and includes additional student resources to help clubs and organizations publicize their events. The Polytechnic hopes that Massoni will make sure that the website will be frequently updated so that it will be an effective resource.

For those undergoing Arch, Massoni hopes to continue her work with the Arch Task Force and Arch Dean Jade Felder to provide students with more resources. For example, holding an Arch Summer Career fair, is one idea she has to prepare students for their Arch away semesters. She also plans on creating a monthly newsletter to better inform students about Arch requirements and deadlines. Massoni aims to improve communication by serving as a liaison between councils and organizations.

In her interview with The Polytechnic, Massoni highlighted that the administration is supposed to hold monthly meetings with the student government, but this is not the case. Massoni wishes for the administration to hold these meetings more regularly, but The Polytechnic urges Massoni to come up with an actionable plan to make this a reality.

Massoni also plans to overhaul how class councils are trained. The current training only takes place once the freshman class council enters office in October. This means that the Class Councils elected during GM Week go almost half a year without training. Massoni wants to expedite training for freshman representatives and have individual training for each class council to cater to the needs of each class. The Polytechnic believes this proposed change has the potential to increase the effectiveness of the Class Councils.

On top of these ideas, Massoni plans to implement a mentoring program within the undergraduate council—she understands that it can be intimidating to ask the UP for advice sometimes. Having an experienced person to speak to would be beneficial for class council and the undergraduate council, says Massoni. Her plans for the undergraduate council regarding training are feasible and possible to implement quickly as it does not involve collaboration with administrators.

The Polytechnic believes that, although running uncontested, Massoni has the skills to excel as Undergraduate President due to her experience on the Class of ’24 Council. Massoni’s plans to improve communication between the undergraduate councils and the student body and enhance class events and the Arch program will help unify the undergraduate body.