Queens College students will be casting their votes for 2025–2026 Student Association president between Apr. 6th to Apr. 11th, choosing between Shawn Rajkumar, running under the Students for Tomorrow (SFT) party, and Brandon Adams, running under the Students for Students (SFS) party. The only candidate for SA vice president is Johan Mueller, also representing the SFT party.
Both candidates come from a background of on-campus leadership experience, which they highlighted during a presidential debate held on March 26th. Rajkumar has served as the former chairman of the QC Academic Senate and the Career Development Committee. He is currently a business advisor for the QC Center for Career Engagement and Internships and the president of QC Ascend. Adams, the incumbent VP of the SA for two years, is also president of QC’s Winner Circle and Dominican Student Union chapters.
But what do each of their parties stand for?
“Students for Tomorrow was built off the work passed down by generations of alumni who encouraged the pursuit of excellence through career development to prepare students for life after graduation,” said Moses Parente, a QC alumnus and co-founder of the SFT party.
The SFS party’s mission statement emphasizes “servant leadership, representation, advocacy, and the empowerment of our student body as a whole.”
During the debate, the candidates expressed how they would administer the SA.
When asked how they would advocate for students, Rajkumar asserted that, as SA president, he would support services that help students, including academic support, counseling, and mental health. Highlighting a recent achievement of his, he presented the audience with a flyer that was widely circulated last year on campus, which successfully pushed for defunding the QC shuttle bus. Rajkumar invested $300 of his own money to print the flyers for the referendum, which he said “reallocated $1.3 million in funding for students.”
Adams, on the other hand, proposed a revamped “SA checkpoint” system to improve communication with students. “This will give students the opportunity to directly reach us through a QR code posted on bulletin boards around campus,” he said.
Additionally, Adams plans to create student patrol groups that would offer volunteer opportunities and assist with lobbying efforts. He also aims to implement SA tabling through this group to reach more students.
Both candidates emphasized the importance of expanding career development resources to students from a variety of majors and backgrounds.
As for ensuring that funds are allocated effectively, Rajkumar asserts that, if elected, he aims to establish a more transparent system. He believes the Student Senate has been underrepresented and wants to ensure students are informed about where funds and resources are directed.
“Some students and clubs seem to get more funding depending on who they know and what happens. But there’s different organizations, like ALAS, who can always pull 40 [or] 50 people in the room on a budget of, like, $200, and the ISA is having an event where they’re getting, like, 300 people, but they only got $200. So I feel like it’s wholly unfair,” Rajkumar said.
Adams proposed making financial information accessible through a website and training the SA treasurer and secretary to properly document funds, ensuring transparency.
Rajkumar also said that, if elected, he would “overhaul the multicultural chair” when answering a question about the role the SA should play in social justice issues on campus.
“Over the past 3 years, that chair really hasn’t done too much to push the social issues on campus,” Rajkumar said. “I think one of their events, strangely enough, was a rodeo, but I definitely think going forward we should have an advocate for the SA to push those issues.”
In response to Rajkumar’s proposal, Adams told The Knight News:
“I think overhauling it would take away from its purpose as I believe there is no need for an entire overhaul, simply a refocus of what the committee is delegated to. For example, rather than focusing on the quantity of events we throw for these different cultures out of SA, we could focus on improving the quality of the already existing cultural clubs on campus to better supplement their club growth through assistance in planning and budgeting. In addition, it was inaccurate to use the terminology of a chair for the multicultural committee. According to our constitution, the multicultural affairs committee is headed by a Vice Chair along with the Political Affairs and Lobbying Team.”
To learn more about the candidates’ positions, students can watch the full debate on the Queens College Student Life YouTube channel. Voting will take place via Uknighted, the QC-wide student platform.
