Xavier Shankle and Ranim Albarkawi elected as Undergraduate Assembly president, vice president

Wharton junior Xavier Shankle and College junior Ranim Albarkawi will serve as the Undergraduate Assembly's next president and vice president.

The Nominations and Elections Committee announced the results on April 5. This spring's election also decided leaders for the 2024, 2025, and 2026 Class Boards.

Shankle won with 771 votes, a 262 vote margin of victory over College junior Chuck Schumer's 509 votes. Shankle said that he was "overcome with joy" after finding out that he secured the presidency.

“It was a joyful moment and very humbling moment to know that students had confidence in me to be UA President for the next year,” Shankle said.

Shankle said that he looks forward to serving as a bridge between students across campus and University administrators in this role.

"A big part of my tenure will be working to amplify student voices," Shankle said. "My goal is that [student groups] will now find it much easier to have their concerns addressed and understood."

Albarkawi won her race with 496 votes, a 34 vote margin of victory over College sophomore Hannah Liu and 202 vote margin of victory over College sophomore Maya El-Sharif — Schumer's running mate.

“I'm extremely grateful,” Albarkawi said. “Xavier and I are both extremely grateful … you don't typically see people like us in these positions.”

As UA Vice President, Albarkawi will chair UA Steering — a group that comprises of 41 student organizations. In this role, Albarkawi said she is working to ensure collaboration and relationship-building between student groups. 

As a Philadelphia native, Albarkawi said that her life experiences bring an important perspective to University decision-making.

“[I will] make sure that we are making decisions that are conscious of Philadelphia and the impact that Penn has there," Albarkawi said. "[I will] continue to work with administration and student groups to ensure that what we are doing is socially responsible."

Students re-elected Wharton and Engineering junior Toyosi Abu as 2024 Class Board president, after he ran unopposed. College sophomore Sri Pinnamareddy was elected as 2025 Class Board president, also running unopposed, after serving as a Class Board 2025 College chair this year. Wharton first year Vedika Jawa was re-elected as 2026 Class Board president, receiving 509 votes compared to Wharton first year Bruno Basner's 274 votes.

All positions for the 2024 and 2025 Class Board were uncontested except Wharton Class Chair for the 2025 Class Board. Wharton sophomores Shivam Sha and Gabriella Gibson both received 35 votes — meaning a runoff will take place to decide the winner.

Last week, the NEC hosted two debates where the UA presidential and vice presidential candidates explained their platforms and plans for the roles. These were the first presidential and vice presidential debates in three years, according to Engineering sophomore Yousef Elyoussef, the NEC's vice chair for elections.

Elyoussef said that the debates helped students to vote based on the candidates’ platforms rather than on their popularity.

“After each debate, we saw a surge in votes, which was great because it truly showed that people were waiting to vote, people were ready to listen to these potential candidates, and [people were] voting based off of their platforms and what they want to do for Penn,” Elyoussef said.

This year was also the first to have a mandatory diversity retreat for candidates, a two-hour session moderated by College junior Oumy Diasse, the chair of the United Minorities Council, and College sophomore Elizabeth Ramos, the chair of Internal Affairs of the Latinx Coalition.

The session included workshops, group activities, and reflections that helped candidates and current student government leaders to identify the identities of themselves and of others, as well as whether Penn Student Government was diverse and approachable enough, according to Elyoussef.

“We think it’s really important that Penn Student Government starts to have a … more approachable reputation on campus,” Elyoussef said. “We thought that this diversity retreat was really important to help ensure that candidates understand the importance of diversity and inclusion not just in student government, but at all of Penn.”

Elyoussef said that, across the board, candidates in this election were very professional and wanted to run campaigns based around issues they cared about.

“This was a great election, when it came to candidate morale,” Elyoussef said. “I feel like candidates were excited to run … it felt like a much less cutthroat vibe than I feel like elections usually have, and that even students who were going against each other for a certain seat, were very, very professional with each other.”