Senate elects Metcalf as vice chair after four rounds of voting
By Lucienne Burns | September 21, 2026
The Student Association (SA) Senate met for an emergency meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 16 to hold a vice chair election and swear in new senators for the academic year. It took four rounds of voting to elect Senator Sean Metcalf as vice chair, with a divided senate failing to reach two-thirds majority until a simple majority vote sufficed.
“It’s great to see all of your faces today, new and returning, and I’m really excited,” Chair Jaden Burke said.
Following the opening remarks and swearing in of several newly-elected senators by Chief Justice Nylah Henry, Chair of the Elections Commission Coen Nelson announced the rules and schedule for the vice chair election.
The senators nominated for the vice chair position were Senator Alana Borrero and Senator Sean Metcalf. Borrero ran for the chair position last year and lost in the first round in the election to current Chair Burke.
Both senators ran on platforms of similar issues, with a common theme being increasing collaboration and communication within the senate body and outside of it.
As a political science and public policy sophomore, Senator Borrero was the chair of the First Year Experience and Innovation Committee last year. Borrero listed her main objectives as vice chair as improving stability, accountability, and communication.
“We’ve seen instability and stability both in and outside the chamber over the past year, and a lot of my initiatives will hopefully dismantle a lot of the negativity from that,” Borrero said.
Metcalf is a senior, also majoring in political science and public policy. He said that as the vice chair, his goals would be to increase accountability and transparency, efficiency, and collaboration inside and outside of the senate.
"We need to make things run smoothly on every level, and that means working with our partners, increasing our partners, and making sure we have a solid base on campus,” Metcalf said.
As for initiatives, Borrero mentioned plans to create a parking ad hoc committee and add a fine arts division to the elections commission to be more representative of the student body as a whole.
Metcalf said he plans to increase the number of town halls by holding them at the living areas where the senate already has representatives. To increase student outreach, Metcalf wants to increase efficiency within the chamber so that senators spend less time in the boardroom and more time connecting with the student body.
Both senators have past public policy experience, with Borrero serving as a student advisor at her high school and Metcalf interning with the New York State Assembly last spring.
Both senators expressed familiarity with working with SA bylaws. Metcalf was on the Rules Committee last year, and was a co-sponsor of last year's bylaw revamp bill. Borrero was also a co-sponsor on the bylaw revamp legislation and has experience writing a different bylaw change bill of her own.
When asked about maintaining impartiality as the vice chair, the candidates had differing viewpoints. Borrero said that she would step down as chair if she felt she could not be impartial to an issue, while Metcalf said that the role of the vice chair depends on this quality.
“If there is ever an issue that comes to the floor that I feel that my constituents or any of the constituents on this campus would benefit from me talking from, I will step down as vice chair and talk as a senator, because my promise is to represent the constituents on this campus and to ensure that every voice is heard, both inside and outside of the chamber,” Borrero said.
“As vice chair, the job is to remain impartial…The vice chair is just to make sure that you have a moment to speak, that you have an ability to communicate what you are thinking, to debate your point and bring those values to the chamber,” said Metcalf, saying he would not feel the need to step down because he would maintain a neutral viewpoint as the job outlines.
Both candidates were asked about how they would manage interpersonal conflict as vice chair.
Metcalf spoke about his experience as a Resident Assistant on campus and experience with mediating difficult conversations, as well as professional experience working with people that he did not agree with.
“As soon as I step through that door, all those personal qualms go away. It strictly becomes a professional relationship,” Metcalf said.
Borrero said she is able to separate friendship from her job of representing students once she gets into the chamber.
“Any good friend would realize the job we were elected to do is something that is separate from what friendship is, and that’s what I plan to bring into this chamber,” she said.
During the debate period, the senate was divided on which candidate to support. Many senators opened their debate points by acknowledging how qualified both candidates were for the job.
As each round of voting failed to result in a two-thirds majority, senators became increasingly more critical of each candidate.
Some senators expressed concerns about electing Metcalf because of his acceptance into the Semester in Washington program, meaning he would potentially leave the position mid-year to intern in the nation's capital.
Senator Damien Teagle mentioned that with both Burke and Metcalf potentially committing to the Semester in Washington program for next spring, their resignations would disrupt the senate.
“I want to focus on the stability that [Borrero] provides to the chamber…We cannot vote on a maybe,” Teagle said. “This should be an obvious choice.”
“A vote for Senator Borrero is a vote for a chamber that functions correctly and smoothly throughout the entire academic year,” Teagle added.
For Borrero, senators opposed expressed concerns over impartiality and the ability to follow bylaws.
Senator Craig Brown said that in reference to the FYEI committee bill that Borrero mentioned in her experience with writing a bylaw bill, it set a requirement for a report to be given at the end of last year that was not followed.
“She says she knows the bylaws, she says she’ll follow the bylaws. She says that she was integral in making the new bylaws, both in the revamp and before that. But for the bylaws she made, she broke them,” Brown said.
The senate voted with no two-thirds majority for three rounds in a row. For SA elections, in the fourth round of voting, a simple majority can determine the results.
Elections commission chair Coen Nelson congratulated both of the candidates on their accomplishments before announcing Metcalf as the winner after the fourth round.
“I would like to thank everyone for your passionate debate, for your support for both candidates, and for your additions to the dialogue,” Nelson said. “I would also like to thank both candidates for the courage to run. You’re both very accomplished.”
Borrero promptly left the meeting after shaking Metcalf’s hand.
Metcalf thanked the senate for the opportunity and thanked his opponent, Borrero, for the debate and dialogue.
In her closing remarks, Chair Burke acknowledged the Semester in Washington issue that came up during debate.
“I know that the hypothetical move to Washington D.C. has caused a lot of frustration, pain, and concern in this room. I want to speak directly to how many of you are upset—it has not been easy for me,” Burke said. “Stepping away from this chamber halfway through the year was never a part of the plan.”
She emphasized that while the thought of breaking her commitment to the senate has been hard, that in past years a third of the students accepted to the program did not go because they could not secure an internship, so the move is still hypothetical.
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