Candidates Running for Office
Board of Trustees Undergraduate Student Representative Candidates
Sean Dunn
Hey Huskies, my name is Sean Dunn and I am a junior Biomedical Engineering student at Storrs. Serving as your Undergraduate Trustee for the past year has been an honor. As an active member of the Academic Affairs; Research, Innovation & Entrepreneurship; Financial Affairs; and Student Life committees, I have worked tirelessly to represent student interests and ensure our voices are heard at the highest levels of UConn’s leadership. Over the past year, I have delivered on my commitments—engaging in advanced discussions about the future of student health services, advocating against tuition increases for the next academic year, and pushing for better transportation to connect UConn’s campuses. These efforts are just the beginning. I am running for re-election because I believe there is still more to accomplish. Students deserve a representative who will be proactive and continue fighting for accessible healthcare, financial transparency, and improvements to academic and campus life. I remain committed to making real progress, not just promises. Being a student trustee is about listening, understanding, and taking action. I have worked hard to ensure that every decision considers student needs, and I will continue to do so with integrity and dedication. I would be honored to earn your support for another term—so we can continue building a stronger, more connected UConn together. #bethechange
Jadon Segnatelli
My name is Jadon Segnatelli, I am a student at the Waterbury campus, and I am currently majoring in economics at The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. I believe I am qualified for the trustee position because I believe in the idea that all of the students at the University of Connecticut on all campuses deserve access to equal opportunities, efficient resources, and an affordable education. I am committed to making sure that everyone receives an efficient and equitable education while everyone’s voice can be heard and feel valued at the University of Connecticut.
Board of Trustees Graduate Student Representative Candidates
Andrew McCotter
My name is Andrew McCotter, and I am a student at UConn Law. I was born and raised in Connecticut and am passionate about serving this community. I am confident in my qualifications for this role due to my leadership experience and commitment to service. During my undergraduate years, I held a similar position and successfully advocated for increased funding for student organizations and clubs. Additionally, as a First Lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps, I learned the value of integrity, accountability, and decisive leadership—qualities that are critical for representing the graduate student body effectively. While at UConn I have spearheaded efforts to assist underserved communities and would use this role as a springboard for further initiatives.
If elected by my peers as the graduate representative on the Board of Trustees, my top priority will be ensuring that I am accessible to all UConn graduate students. To achieve this, I plan to publish my contact information and hold dedicated office hours—not only on my own campus but across all UConn campuses—so that every graduate student has the opportunity to voice their needs and concerns directly. Among the key policies I intend to advocate for are:
- Extending the reading period to provide graduate students with sufficient time to prepare for exams.
- Improving campus facilities and resources to enhance the graduate student experience.
- Defending Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives against federal actions that seek to undermine them.
Above all, I am committed to being a strong, unwavering advocate for UConn graduate students. I will always be ready to listen, take action, and fight for the issues that matter most to our community. A leader is only as strong as their ability to be the voice of their constituents.
Fabio Saccomanno
Dear Huskies,
Thank you for your consideration as a candidate for Graduate Student Trustee. My name is Fabio; I am a first-year medical student at the School of Medicine and 2021 CLAS graduate. This is my eighth year being a Husky; I returned to UConn for medical school because its mission to “embrace diversity… integrity, and engaged leadership” has inspired me well as an undergraduate student, alum, and now graduate student.
In just a few weeks, the federal government has uprooted historical norms by jeopardizing federal funding across many sectors. As a leading public university with a substantial healthcare arm, the UConn community faces an uncertain future: Federal funding cuts would be felt throughout our educational, healthcare, and research initiatives. As a medical student, I am uniquely positioned to understand how these impacts affect our experiences—my training intensely involves all three of these arms. When UConn is tasked with responding to funding cuts, you can count on me to meaningfully advocate for why our opportunities must be preserved.
My time at UConn has been marked by senior leadership roles: I served as the CFO/Comptroller of the Storrs USG for two terms, and now I serve as President of the Medical-Dental Student Government. These positions have afforded me a strong understanding of how governance works here at UConn. Furthermore, it reflects my track record: I get things done. My foundation in advocacy here at UConn is strong: I will get things done as your Trustee.
My vision is simple: I will be accessible, fearless, and resolute. I will implement regular communication with the graduate student governments to facilitate collaboration and effective advocacy. This will enable you to hold me accountable and for I to successfully fight for you.
UConn’s mission is under threat. Our values are being challenged. I am running for Trustee to make a positive difference for the UConn community.
A vote for me is a vote for you.
Foundation Board Student Director Candidates
Christopher Bergen
Master of Engineering in General Engineering
I am running because you deserve a relentless advocate at the UConn Foundation. I am determined to ensure our $600,000,000+ endowment at the Foundation is invested and spent where it matters most: on students.
My focus will be on supporting programs that lower tuition and mandatory fees (especially for those with financial need), increase available & affordable housing in Storrs and regional campuses, and to prioritize investment in student programs over administrator pay. UConn’s mission should be to provide an affordable education that benefits Connecticut, and I will work on the Foundation board with this mission in mind.
My experience: While USG Comptroller as an undergraduate, I fought for funding that directly benefited students. Most notably, I initiated the free Plan B program with SHAW, and implemented club funding reforms to simplify the process (some of which has unfortunately been reversed since). While representing students on the Student Activity and Service Fee Advisory Committee (SASFAC), I gained valuable insight into the programs our student activity fees support. I hope to earn your support! If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out.
Thank you!
Storrs Undergraduate Fee Referenda
The Student Activity and Service Fee Advisory Committee (SASFAC) requests input from students who pay the fee about your support for or against a requested fee increase from the following Student Activity Fee funded organizations. The referenda is one piece of information that committee will consider in making our recommendations to the central administration. Information from the organizations regarding their fee increase request is available on the SASFAC website here.
Daily Campus: Budget Packet found here.
Please respond to the following statement: Do you support an increase in the undergraduate fee for the Daily Campus from $10 per semester ($20 per year) per student to $12 per semester ($24 per year) per student (an increase of $2 per semester/$4 per year)? This increase will take effect no earlier than the fall semester 2025.
Taken from Budget Submission regarding rationale for fee increase in Budget Packet linked above: "One line item that majorly contributes to our financial situation is Student Wage Expenses. Currently, within The Daily Campus, we only have the essential, bare-minimum staff to cover content. Since we cannot reduce anymore roles, without disrupting our core mission, we have now started with pay cuts with executives from $19.09 to $18.75, and only increase other roles to their minimums during the minimum wage increases. Paying writers for their time and commitment to the Daily Campus creates an equal exchange of goods. Our writers put an extensive amount of their own time and effort into investigating topics, finding sources, and articulating their findings to provide the greater UConn community with a service. This act should not be unfairly taken advantage of without proper payment. If we want to expand or even hold constant on the news coverage we have now in FY25 to FY27, we will need to more funds. We cannot remove anymore roles. In addition, The Daily Campus travels the least out of the media organizations across Nutmeg, WHUS, and UCTV. Only our sports and photographers travel but they miss almost all away games, as the Daily Campus tries to prioritize expensive travel days like March Madness. It creates an unfair burden our writers who must cover these games without being there. Additional revenue would be used to increase travel to equally cover away sports games and provide travel to other sections for popular events like concerts, conferences, and Connecticut wide events. The Daily Campus has needed a huge turnover in equipment. Our apple products are unable to handle adobe, indesign, and basic applications, to the point where many copyeditors use their devices. With over 10 devices waiting to be replaced, The Daily Campus would use additional funds to replace them. As well as provide the proper equipment to copyeditors such as IPADS to digitally edit articles. The Daily Campus has taken many steps to reduce expenses. While we have done so successfully to some extent, there is only so much room to make cuts without losing our ability to maintain our organizational goals unless we receive additional funding."
Nutmeg Publishing (Yearbook): Budget Packet found here.
Please respond to the following statement: Do you support an increase in the undergraduate fee for the Nutmeg Publishing (Yearbook) from $4 per semester ($8 per year) per student to $7 per semester ($14 per year) per student (an increase of $3 per semester/$6 per year)? This increase will take effect no earlier than the fall semester 2025.
Taken from Budget Submission regarding rationale for fee increase in Budget Packet linked above: "First, Nutmeg needs funds to be able to print two yearbooks in one year. Second, we need funds to be able to increase the spending in our yearbook contract so we can provide the seniors with a high quality yearbook, rather than the smaller bare bones yearbooks we have to make now. Third, for more seniors to have their portrait taken and be represented in the yearbook they automatically receive, we need money to have a larger rental space for more Lauren Studios photographers. Fourth, as the UConn student class size rises, we have to pay for more yearbook pages and more yearbooks, thus increasing our printing costs. Fifth, with more money we could hire more staff, and avoid events not getting covered for the yearbook. Sixth, we would have more flexibility to do things in the past like traveling."
Undergraduate Student Government Storrs: Budget Packet found here.
Please respond to the following statement: Do you support of an increase in the undergraduate fee for the Undergraduate Student Government (USG) from $45 per semester ($90 per year) per student to $50 per semester ($100 per year) per student (an increase of $5 per semester/$10 per year)? This increase will take effect no earlier than the fall semester 2025.
Taken from Budget Submission regarding rationale for fee increase in Budget Packet linked above: "The requested increase will go to Tier II funding. As the number of RSOs continues to increase significantly every year, USG is unable to adequately support the large volume of funding for events, meetings, travel, and initiatives that RSOs request. We have increased the Tier II funding allocation by $200,000 this year, and it does not appear to be enough to cover the volume of requested funding. As of the end of the Fall funding request period, we have approved over $693,633 in Tier II funding this year. This is over 69% of the Tier II funding allocation within 3 months of the beginning of the Fall Semester. We have received 646 funding requests from 140 different RSOs and, we allow all RSOs to spend up to $15,000 per group, until we reach our capacity. Student groups, especially club sports, continue to pay out of pocket for a variety of expenses including travel, supplies, equipment, contracted services, and more. New space rental expenses are in place for this year, including a $1000 usage fee per student group using Jorgensen’s stage and about $40,000 worth of Hawley Armory space. All of these expenses will likely be requested in the Tier II Funding allocation. Additionally, there has been a lack of space for student groups on campus leading to $17,370.00 in off-campus rental expenses. The space rentals on and off campus have become a significant Tier II expense that cannot feasibly be covered without a fee increase. It is not feasible for all students to be able to enhance their co-curricular experience at UConn by paying out of pocket for all of these expenses. There is a foreseeable risk that students that can afford to partake in certain ventures with the RSO will continue to do so, and leave those who cannot afford additional programming, events, travel, etc. behind. A fee increase would assist all students in partaking in RSOs' activities, building friendships, exploring new interests, and enhancing their leadership and professional skills. Additionally, we no longer have PIRG funding available to spend, after this year. Free printing and New York Times subscriptions were paid using the PIRG account. This is about $80,000 worth of expenses that will no longer be paid for through PIRG allocations. $56,620 of the free printing was used last year, demonstrating its popularity. We would like to continue to at least support advocacy and programming initiatives. We function to advocate for students on campus and require funding to run our programming. Although we would like to use the fee increase to bolster Tier II funding allocations, we want to prevent programming cuts from occurring without said increase."
Candidates for Hartford USG: President
Candidates for Hartford USG: Vice President
Candidates for Hartford USG: Senators
Candidates for Stamford SGA: President
Candidate for Stamford SGA: Vice President
Candidates for Stamford SGA: Chief Financial Officer
Candidates for Stamford SGA: Chief Administrative Officer
Up to Date USG Storrs Candidate Information can be found at https://usg.uconn.edu/meet-the-candidates/
Candidates for Storrs USG: President and Vice President
Candidates for Storrs USG: Comptroller
Candidates for Storrs USG: Chief Diversity Officer
Candidates for Storrs USG: Multicultural and Diversity Senator
Candidates for Storrs USG Academic Senator, College/School
Candidates for Senator, School of Business:
Candidates for Senator, CAHNR:
Candidates for Senator, CLAS:
Candidates for Senator, NEAG School of Education:
Candidates for Senator, Engineering:
Candidates for Senator, Fine Arts:
Candidates for Senator, Nursing: