Aleksandra Czulak ’17: seeking to bring student body together

Undergraduate Student Government presidential candidate and current vice president Aleksandra Czulak ’17 said she wants to increase USG’s collaboration with various on-campus organizations and students not involved in USG.

Czulak said she is seeking to improve collaboration between various constituencies on campus, bringing them together to advance policies and programs that most effectively serve the student body. These span items such as more collaborative mental health initiatives, changes to financial aid policy, accessibility to eating club and meal options, and a more outsider-friendly USG, she noted.

She also said that she wants to create all-student task forces to investigate and address campus needs that involve a diversity of student voices.

“The University has task forces, but those usually only have two students or so. Why can’t we have all-student task forces to address campus-wide issues?” she said.

She explained that a task force on campus response to sexual assault, for example, should include Sexual Harassment/Assault Advising, Resources and Education peer advisers, eating club officers, athletes, USG members, peer health advisers and “everyone who has a vested interest in talking about sexual assault in this context.”

She also noted that initiating shorter-term projects would allow USG to invite students outside USG to join the decision-making process, raise issues and offer solutions. Such an approach would allow all students to offer input.

“We’re trying to challenge campus norms and make better change for the students on this campus,” she says.

Czulak also noted she wants to offer training on budget building, mechanisms to store organization-specific information, to increase funding and to conduct elections according to USG regulations.

Czulak explained her experience working under several USG administrations allowed her to have insight into the gaps between administrations and made her ready to address such gaps.

“It’s interesting because the closer you are to working with these different individuals, especially the president and vice president, you see the gaps,” she said. “I would say I am the most critical of them because I can see what’s not being followed up on.”

She added that her insider knowledge and institutional memory offers an advantage to the position.

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“I’ve worked closely with Ella [Cheng ’16], and I’ve worked with the other administration as well, so [I] know what to expect, what resources are available for us to use and what administrators to reach out to,” she said.

Czulak noted that during her tenures as vice president and executive secretary, she explored beyond administrative duties and jump-started her own initiatives, such as the Eating Club Accessibility project.

Current Class of 2016 senator Deana Davoudiasl endorsed Czulak’s ability to follow up on projects.

“She follows up on projects like no other vice president has. She has been the most competent in terms of encouraging members, and she really acts as a resource for projects … being very open, supportive and helpful,” she said. “I think she is an amazing candidate for USG president because not only has she been able to foster very strong relationship with current and future USG members, but she has been able to articulate a vision.”

Davoudiasl, who has worked with Czulak on the Eating Club Accessibility project, also noted her ability to balance openness with directions.

“I sat in on a lot of meetings with her and administrators, and got to see her in action with speaking to administrators … toeing that line between being friendly and listening and being more directive and advocating for certain things that USG felt strongly about. That balance is a great thing about Aleks,” she added.

Marie Siliciano ’17 endorsed Czulak’s commitment to USG and the larger University community.

“Her commitment to USG and this community didn’t end when she left campus; it didn’t end at the end of the day,” she said. “When people had questions for her, when there were initiatives that needed to be planned or [when there were] younger members of USG, she was always happy to mentor them and talk to them. That wasn’t something she took breaks from.”

Siliciano also noted Czulak’s respect for her colleagues.

“Having seen her interact with members of the groups she’s a part of, she really values and respects everyone she works with very much, and that’s very apparent from the way she interacts with them,” she added. “She is really good at holding people to their highest potential and organizations to their highest potential.”

Czulak is an economics major from Chicago, Ill., pursuing a certificate in Global Health and Health Policy, and Technology and Society.