Election results are in, and junior political communications major Georgia Winn is the next executive president of the Student Government Association. 

Winn had the highest vote count in the election with 160 votes. Angus Abercrombie, another junior political communications major, will be the next vice president with 141 votes, and Oliver Katz, who is also a junior political communications major, continues on in his current position of executive treasurer. 

The voting turnout this year was greater than last year, with a total of 237 votes. Several write-in candidates will be announced in an official post and email after confirming conduct checks.

The next Executive Board will continue many of the discussions SGA worked on this year, including the Student Impact Fund proposal. At the April 4 general assembly meeting, SGA continued conversations amid the adoption of a motion, S. Res. 7, a resolution transferring $675,000 from the Student Impact Fund into Emerson’s endowment. It does not finalize SGA’s proposal to invest. 

Several students present at the meeting, who did not provide names to the meeting or The Beacon, raised concerns about what the college’s endowment invests in. 

“Endowment and divestment is not a new thing, [it is] not just like money floats around,” one student said. “We’re not stupid … we’re fucking fed up.” 

Some students directed questions and concerns to Vice President of Student Affairs Christie Anglade, Interim Vice President of Finance Robert Butler, and Vice President of Institutional Advancement Allison Dawson, who were all present at the meeting.

“How is it not right to disclose that information,” the same student asked of where the endowment money goes. 

“The college is a charitable organization. It operates for charitable purposes, educational purposes … that’s our mission,” Butler said. “The college is overseen by an independent board of trustees … and an investment committee.” 

Deputy Communications Senator Sheridan Robbins asked if students can meet with the board of trustees regarding the rare situation of the fund. The Student Impact Fund was created after 2020 when over $1 million was returned to SGA from student organizations that did not spend their entire budgets due to the pandemic.

“[The] board doesn’t do individual meetings with students,” Anglade said. “[They are] a top-level team behind the scenes.” 

Butler added that the main goals and visions of the investment committee are environmental, social, governance, and diversity, equity, and inclusion. “Diversification is critical when investing money, first to produce a return, a proper return, so that we can give out scholarships well into the future in perpetuity,” he said.

President Donald Trump has already begun freezing federal funding for colleges, such as Cornell University and Northwestern University in relation to his stance on DEI. Emerson has not been spared the federal administration’s attention, either. On April 7, President Jay Bernhardt sent out an email to the Emerson community announcing at least one Emerson student has had their visa revoked. The move also came one month after the Trump administration launched federal investigations into dozens of higher education institutions—Emerson among them—for allegedly failing to protect Jewish students.

In a roll call vote of 8-6, S. Res. 7 was adopted, and SGA will continue discussions on the endowment until the final debate and vote at the April 11 general assembly meeting. SGA also amended the resolution to add statements “firmly encourag[ing]” the college to disclose the endowment’s investments and from companies manufacturing “weapons of war” and are involved with “fossil fuels.”

The motion for the amendment passed in a roll call vote of 14-0 for the first statement and 13-0 with one abstention for the second statement. 

Another resolution, offered by Executive Treasurer Oliver Katz, who was not present at the meeting, and Executive Vice Treasurer Angus Abercrombie, who was present at the meeting, listed all of the recommended budgets for student organizations.

Before adjournment during open forum, the unidentified students continued back and forth conversations with Anglade about a letter published in The Beacon in March. The letter had not been responded to at the time of the meeting, according to the first student.