Steinhardt junior Angela Chou. (Courtesy of Ryan Carney)

Steinhardt junior Angela Chou was elected the next chairperson of NYU’s Student Government Assembly during a meeting Thursday evening. Chou, who will take over from Ryan Carney in the summer, has been the president of the Class Activities Board ‘25 and served as the student government’s Director of Operations for nearly three years.

“I have a profound passion for student advocacy,” Chou told the student government at the election. “Since my first year, I’ve been a big voice for students who have raised their concerns about a number of topics.”

Chou ran alongside two other candidates — Mya Sato and Pritha Mukherji — each of whom had at least one year of experience working in the student government. Following 90-second speeches, the three candidates participated in an 11-minute Q&A session. Around 50 SGA members ranked the three candidates, with Chou ultimately winning the vote. 

Carney, a first-year at the Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, started his term as SGA chair in summer 2023, tasked with representing over 60,000 NYU students in administrative matters by overseeing the university’s student government. During his time leading the student government, Carney helped revive Project 61 — a retired SGA initiative aimed at connecting the student government with the NYU student body across its campuses. 

Chou told WSN that she wants to continue Carney’s initiative “to make SGA more well-known.”

“I want to encourage our members to implement greater changes within their constituencies, whether it’s through increased resources, universitywide events or anything in between,” Chou said. “This involves advocating for initiatives that represent the entire student body and prioritizing what students really desire and want. Whatever students want, we will do our absolute best to advocate for it.”

Under Carney’s leadership, the student government passed a resolution to protect pro-Palestinian activity on campus last semester — which NYU leadership delayed in February, arguing that it was “not ready” and did not have “wide student body support.” More recently, the SGA passed a resolution to reopen the Grand Staircase in the Kimmel Center for University Life after it closed on Oct. 12 due to what NYU referred to as “protest activity.” The university reopened a section of the Kimmel stairs on March 26.

Carney is currently working with over 50 student governments from universities across the state to bring a bill that would require colleges to develop suicide prevention, intervention and response policies to the New York state senate.

“Fall semester and this semester, there’s been a lot going on in the NYU community that has divided us,” Carney told WSN. “[Chou] has a really good pulse on what students are going through.” 

Contact Dharma Niles at [email protected].