Junior Caucus: Gigi Bryce and Sophia Dasser

RECORD: Although the duo is not currently involved in student government, Bryce and Dasser each have considerable leadership experience. Bryce is a part of the Grow NYC Youth Leadership Council and the Stuyvesant Environmental Club, and plays soccer for both school and local teams. She has years of experience in local volunteering for environmental advocacy, and is responsible for bringing programs such as Immigrant Social Services to the Stuyvesant community. Dasser worked in the Student Union as a Director of External Affairs in her freshman year, and is currently a director of events for both ARISTA and the Muslim Students Association.

DYNAMIC: Despite only having met at the beginning of the year, Bryce and Dasser have good rapport. They are each able to seamlessly pick up from where the other left off when describing their policies, demonstrating the confidence they have in their plans for the junior class.

PLATFORM: The Bryce-Dassar ticket is solid in both its long-term policies and events to promote transparency, support, and inclusivity. Because the two are both new to being part of Stuyvesant’s student caucuses, one of their main goals is to prevent nepotism within the caucus, such as by having an impartial member of the SU be present for the interviews. They also plan to introduce a new structure to the caucus, with rolling applications and accessibility to switch between departments. Their policies include both academic support, such as through homework buddies and a quiz for what classes students should take, and more relaxing events, such as a Fall Festival, movie nights, and secret gift exchanges.

Dasser and Bryce have not been involved in student government this year; however, they have exhibited that they have put careful thought into the feasibility of their proposed plans. Their extroversion and detailed policies exhibit that they are capable of representing the junior class.

Dasser and Bryce are running on the campaign TIS, which stands for transparency, inclusivity, and support. For their transparency point, they place great importance on involving students in the caucus’ plans. In September, they plan to send out a form with a list of potential events so students can choose what events they would like the caucus to prioritize for the year. This also goes with their proposed suggestion portal for caucus as well as open forums so that students can talk to caucus members about what is going on. Another aim is transparency with their budget, so students know where caucus money is going.

For inclusivity, the pair are prioritizing redoing the selection process for caucus members so that it is free of nepotism. This greatly ties along with the fact that they themselves are “fresh faces in caucus.” To ensure that caucus member selection is fair, they plan on reviewing the applications anonymously, and having an “impartial member of SU” make final decisions about applications.

And lastly, for the support point, the ticket has both academic policies and fun events planned for the caucus. Some of their strongest policies are homework buddies, through which students will be paired with other students in their class to study together if they wish, crowdsourcing notes for students who are absent or wish to have access to more details from class, and quizzes that mock the Talos descriptions of classes for students to decide what class to take. They also have social events planned such as movie nights on Rockefeller Lawn and a Matchmaker form to find a date for Junior Prom. Like other tickets, Dasser and Bryce have less unique policies such as weekly caucus updates and college presentations for juniors.

Though this ticket lacks prior experience in student government, it demonstrates a strong capability for leadership through its involvement at Stuyvesant, emphasis on student involvement in choosing policies, and detailed plans for execution of those policies. Because of this, The Spectator endorses the Bryce-Dassar ticket.