Earlier this month, Pomona and Scripps Colleges elected their student governments for the 2025-2026 academic year. This election cycle, Pomona gathered a turnout of 1,001 students, and Scripps cited a record number of voters. Grace Zheng PO ’26, the incoming Associated Students of Pomona College (ASPC) president, and Simran Sethi SC ’26, the incoming Scripps Associated Students (SAS) president, sat down with TSL to reflect on the election and discuss their goals for next year.
The following conversations have been lightly edited for clarity.
Grace Zheng is currently serving as the head chair of Pomona’s Judicial Council. She has previously served on ASPC as the senate secretary and director of operations.
TSL: What inspired you to run for ASPC president, and what do you hope to achieve during your term?
Grace Zheng: I was actually on ASPC staff for my first two years of college, and my decision to run was really based on all my experience in those roles. During that time, I worked on initiatives like 4/7 day and Candy Grams, which were tangible and concrete projects that I really felt made an impact on people’s days, like seeing people’s smiling faces, and I got to be a part of the process. And so I saw how our student government can really have these initiatives that improve the quality of students’ lives. It was those small moments where you see people light up.
I think my other decision to run was because this is a very turbulent time nationally. I think we all agree with that. My experience with J-Board, with handling policy changes, really helped me see how important it is. This role has allowed me to be in spaces to make a difference. I’m an international student myself, and so I’m very closely tied to all the events that have been happening on campus. So I think a privilege this role comes with is to be in spaces with people and to be able to have conversations — I really treasure the opportunity to be able to advocate and speak to people.
TSL: How do you plan to foster a sense of community and inclusivity among students from diverse backgrounds?
GZ: When I made my platform, I knew that a lot of the initiatives I wanted to work on would always be in tandem with other commissioners and student bodies on campus. I was an AAMP [Asian American Mentor Program] mentor previously, and during that time, I was a part of the affinity group committee, so I got to work with the BSU [Black Student Union] and LXA [Latinx Alliance] to run inter-affinity group events. I want to designate more funding to having culturally grounded events working with affinity groups, which I’ll definitely be doing with the Commissioner of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
TSL: How do you plan to collaborate with other student leaders and organizations to address challenges facing the college, including impacts to federal funding and uncertainty for international students?
GZ: I’ve had several meetings already with current senators who are working on initiatives for undocumented and international students. We’ve been corresponding with IDEAS and we’ve been in conversations, which is work I hope to take on. Because of the Trump presidency, we’ve been focused on student groups, and this is something I will be working with the Vice President of Academic Affairs on.
TSL: How will you continue to work with the Pomona president moving forward, whether Gabi Starr returns from sabbatical or Interim President Gaines stays in the position?
GZ: I appreciate how Gaines has been more proactive with communication. When we were kind of expecting FERPA to come up, it did, which was reassuring. Having that communication is important, and it’s something I’ll continue to work on if President Starr comes back. I have met with the outgoing ASPC president about the meetings I attend and the kind of exposure I get. I obviously hope to navigate that relationship respectfully, but I’ve also had conversations with senators, and I think it’s important to hold them accountable. I’m not afraid to do that. Of course, I want to do that in a respectful way because I don’t want to alienate anyone, especially when federal issues are affecting campuses across the country. It’s tough.
TSL: Looking ahead, what legacy do you hope to leave behind as student body president?
GZ: In terms of student life and school spirit, it’s kind of cheesy, but I want to bring back old traditions that we used to have, like Frary Snack and Harwood Halloween, but also make new traditions. In terms of campus culture and spirit, that’s been lacking in recent years. And from my understanding, alumni funding — especially from recent graduates — has also been declining. During alumni events, I want to interview people and build on promoting institutional memory, and bring back some of the things that, according to alumni, really made the Pomona experience special, unique and meaningful for them.
I think a lot of that energy was lost during COVID, and obviously we’ve had political issues on campus, so I definitely want to bring back some of that campus culture, especially now, when we have even more coming. These days, a lot of what we do is reactive rather than proactive.
My first year at Pomona, I really saw a lot of the potential for what ASPC can do. So in the long term, I want to push for structural changes from within ASPC, ensuring that it’s more transparent. I want to challenge senators with what they can achieve and leave that legacy. It’s our vision, not just mine.
Simran Sethi is currently serving as vice president of student activities for SAS. She has previously served on SAS as DEI Chair and on multiple committees.
TSL: What inspired you to run for student body president?
SS: I’ve been on SAS for the last two and a half years. I randomly applied. My freshman year, there was a student who dropped being the DEI Chair. So then an email got sent out to the student body, being like, “Hey, we have a spot open.”
I hadn’t been as involved on campus before, just focusing on classes and getting accumulated into the social life of college. I hopped on this team of so many upperclassmen, people I never met before, all with the same passion, the same drive of making change to the school, building community and a space where marginalized voices can come to light and we can work on issues that people come to us with. Student government became really important to me.
This last year, I ran to be VPSA, which is vice president of student affairs, so now I’m on the executive team, overseeing events, clubs and everything. I just started touching into the more managerial side of student government, so when it came around to elections, I was like, “Wait, I think it just makes sense for me to run to be president.”
TSL: Is there anything in particular that you want to achieve during your term this upcoming school year?
SS: One of our big accomplishments this year was that there were more events around campus … and a lot more people know of the student government and the events that we host. A lot more engagement on that end.
I’ve been seeing people becoming more comfortable with one another in larger spaces and more willing to step out of their dorms and attend events. I definitely want to continue to bring that in next year.
Also, the Trump administration, all the changes that are happening across the nation — how are we as a student government going to advocate for our student body, work with the administration or work against, based on what decisions are being made, and also just continue to work on transparency?
TSL: You mentioned trust from the student body. How do you plan to continue to foster that sense of community and trust from the student body, given the uncertainty of the moment? Do you think there are any unique challenges to fostering that sense of community and trust with the student body in this current moment?
SS: One thing that SAS has done is the Be Heard forums. They’re once a month, hosted in the Motley, so a very in-and-out space for the Scripps community. It’s a space for Scripps students to talk about any concerns that they may have, or things that they’re really liking or want to see more of. You can say anything during this time.
Along with that, all of our meetings are open to any Scripps students. Student government is also very involved in other spaces around campus … so because we’re sprinkled around campus as well, we’re also hearing or having conversations about what students are feeling.
TSL: How do you plan to work with the Scripps president and other members of the administration moving forward, and how do you plan to continue to be an effective advocate for student voices when communicating with administration?
SS: We’re in a tricky place right now because of federal funding, and we’re also a historically women’s college, so we’re on much thinner ice than the other 5Cs. But SAS doesn’t have the government on our backs; we get to be that voice, we get to say whatever we want, and show the support to the students, through in-person conversation with administration, where we then relay the information to the student body. We want to keep a good relationship with the administration, but then it goes back to frustration. This is the lack of transparency that we’ve been facing for the last two semesters, starting with the Motley shutting down. It’s been really hard to get a clear answer of “Okay, fine. You know, we will start communicating with our student body more clearly.” But unfortunately, that’s not what they’re going to do. They’ve made that very clear.
TSL: Do you think the student government can provide that clarity and transparency by being an intermediary and delivering the information to the administration?
SS: I definitely do think that by sitting on student government, you have a level of respect from administration by being a student body-elected leader. The students elected everyone on SAS to be in the position they are, and for as long as SAS has been the student government at Scripps, they’ve always had a relationship with administration. It’s written in the bylaws that I will be sitting on these committees. Anyone who’s elected to this position will be sitting on these committees, and that’s a relationship that has been built by the administrative committees and by SAS over the years.
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