Jean Wang, Contributing Photographer

Nyché Andrew ’25 and Madeline Gupta ’25 have one primary aim behind their bid for Yale College Council president and vice president — building bridges in the Yale community. 

Andrew and Gupta are both part of Yale’s Indigenous community, which they emphasize as the impetus for their dedication to ensuring that all groups throughout the University feel connected to the YCC.

“As Native people and therefore having the smallest representation of students on campus, we are often overlooked, whether it’s by administration or other students,” Gupta said. “For me, that really, really gives us a drive to connect every community on campus with the YCC. We want to make their voices heard, we want to know what they need from us, because we know what it’s like to not have our voices heard.”

Andrew, a Yup’ik and Inupiaq woman from Anchorage, Alaska, is the YCC’s only Indigenous senator this year, representing Branford College. Although Gupta, who hails from the Sault St. Marie tribe of Chippewa Indians along the Great Lakes in Northern Michigan, has never served on the YCC. She has served on the board of the Native and Indigenous Students Association at Yale and has been involved in various STEM and dance organizations across campus. 

Andrew and Gupta have an extensive platform with over 100 policy proposals that they hope to pass as president and vice president. Andrew and Gupta told the News that they aim to reach every community and identity on campus with their policy proposals, which range from changes to the YCC structure — including adding a delegate representative position for student organizations — to subsidizing airfare for international students. 

“We need more than just the 30 voices of the senators and president and vice president,” Andrew said. “We are building bridges in the community to uplift voices and make sure that we in the YCC are holding ourselves accountable. We’re making sure that the community members have a stake in how we are operating as an institution.”

Andrew said that they developed their platform through collaboration with members of community members across campus — something she said would be a practice they maintained throughout their presidency and vice presidency if elected.

If elected, Andrew and Gupta would be the first Indigenous president and vice president respectively. They believe this would be a victory not only for themselves, but for their families and the broader Yale community. 

The land on which Yale is built was stolen from Indigenous peoples almost 400 years ago. For Andrew and Gupta, leading the student body of such an institution would mean displaying to their families that everything they have sacrificed to allow them to attend Yale was worth it.

“No one in my family made it to college before my siblings and myself, I’m the first in my family to attend college out of state,” Andrew said. “I just think about all of the sacrifices and resources that the people who came before me gave up and made sure I had so that I could be at an elite private institution still representing who they are. That’s my personal stake in this election.”

Similarly, Gupta remembers her grandfather when considering the significance of her bid to be the first Indigenous vice president of the YCC.

“I think about my grandpa and his hat that my sister bought him that said Yale on it, and how he requested to be buried in it because it was his pride and joy that someone from his family made it here,” Gupta said. 

Andrew and Gupta met prior to coming to Yale, when the University’s Race, Indigeneity, and Transnational Migration Department gave them both an award recognizing community service. They were the only two Indigenous students on the list, which prompted Andrew to reach out to Gupta. They have been close friends ever since.

They believe that this friendship provides a strength to their campaign and would aid in their effectiveness as President and Vice President.

“I think something really special about us is that we’re not just coworkers or peers or students,” Gupta said. “This is my best friend in the entire world, and there is no one I can work better with to make change happen.”

The election this year will run from Wednesday, April 12 at 9:00 a.m. to Friday, April 14 at 9:00 p.m. Results will be announced by Saturday, April 15 at 9:00 a.m.