Student Assembly sent out a call for candidates for their Spring 2026 election cycle in an email to the student body on March 17. Candidate registration is currently open until Friday at noon.
There are 30 available seats for the 2026-2027 academic year, including President, Executive Vice President and representatives across multiple majors and fields.
Prospective candidates can visit the election page for step-by-step instructions on how to register and qualify for candidacy.
Students were encouraged to “contribute to shared governance at Cornell” in the email.
Cornell operates under a shared governance model, where the Student Assembly is given legislative authority over policies within the Office of the Dean of Students and the Department of Campus Life. The Assembly also manages the Undergraduate Student Activity Fee, which supports select undergraduate institutions with their programming.
The campaigning process requires students to submit a candidate registration form by Friday. This form requires students to submit headshots, biographical information and a maximum 1,250 word statement of candidacy.
Candidates then must gather the required number of signatures for petitions due on April 6 at noon, ranging from 30 to 70, for their respective positions.
Students must be full-time undergraduate students to vote and register.
Voting for candidates begins on April 20 at midnight and ends on April 27 at 11:59 p.m.
The Student Assembly has undergone a series of tense meetings throughout the spring semester, where members have expressed frustrations over assembly inaction, delays and absences of response on passed resolutions.
During the March 19 meeting, representative Max Ehrlich ’26 asked all Assembly members who had authored a resolution during the current academic year to raise their hands.
“In my opinion, if you're not raising your hand, you should not be running for re-election for Student Assembly,” Ehrlich said at the meeting.
In the 2025 election cycle, president Zora deRahm was elected to a second term, beating runner-up Ameera Aftab ’26 and runners-up Eddie Pang ’28 and Christian Flournoy ’27. Flournoy went on to win executive vice president over runner-ups Ezra Galperin ’27, Saad Razzak ’26 and David Suarez ’27. Galperin and Suarez served as representatives.
Last year saw a total of 1,667 votes for president which is approximately 10% of the 2025 student body.
There are no term limits for positions according to the Assembly’s election rules.
Election results will be released on April 30.
Everett Chambala is a member of the Class of 2027 in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations. He is a staff writer for the News department and can be reached at echambala@cornellsun.com.
