Running in the upcoming Computing Students’ Association (COMPSA) election, team AMA hopes to bring meaningful change, affordability and transparency.
Team AMA is made up of Abdel-Rahman Mobarak, who’s running for president, Manreet Gill, running for vice-president (operations) (VPOPS), and Aryaman Bhatia, running for vice-president (student affairs), all CompSci ’28.
The elected executive team are all responsible for attending and representing COMPSA at the AMS assemblies, as well as computing assembly and meetings with the director of the computing program. The president’s responsible for introducing and promoting COMPSA during orientation to new students, as well as overseeing and supporting COMPSA initiatives. VPOPS oversees all COMPSA hiring, conference portfolios, and finances. VPSA oversees clubs and student outreach.
Both Mobarak and Gill joined in their first year and described their early involvement as formative and a big part of helping them connect with their peers. While Bhatia hasn’t directly involved with COMPSA, he’s on the executive teams of clubs associated with the computing student body, such as QHacks.
Team AMA built their platform on three main pillars: affordability, meaningful change, and authenticity.
Mobarak spoke about his plan for making COMPSA initiatives more affordable and accessible to the student body. He emphasized focusing on intentional budgeting, regular audits and minimizing unnecessary spending, rather than blanket cost reductions to ensure that events are still enjoyable.
“Before we even spend a dollar, we need to be intentional about where it’s going. If students want to attend events, cost shouldn’t be the barrier,” Mobarak said in an interview with The Journal.
Mobarak emphasized stronger coordination between executive portfolios and financial oversight to be sure that all distributed resources are used effectively and responsibly, as a key component.
Bhatia spoke about the team’s second pillar, authenticity, which has a focus on transparency. Initially drawn to COMPSA due to its potential to act as a “megaphone for student voices,” he believes that through consistent information and communication, the COMPSA team can achieve this.
He highlighted plans to incorporate more consistent communication tools, such as a newsletter students can subscribe to, and increased transparency through more frequent financial report and internal updates being made public to the computing student body. “COMPSA isn’t above the student body—we work for it, and students deserve to know what’s happening and where their money is going,” Bhatia emphasized.
Gill spoke about their third and final pillar, meaningful change, especially in relation to COMPSA’s relationship with computing and computing-adjacent clubs.
She spoke about the feedback that was received from clubs, regarding their relationship with COMPSA, which felt transactional rather than supportive. To quell this, Gill plans to ensure that clubs are fully aware of the financial, logistical and promotional resources available to them, and reinforce the idea that COMPSA exists to support the computing community.
The team also highlighted accountability and adaptability as defining values, and emphasized the importance of responding to the changing needs of the student body and ensuring everyone feels heard and accounted for.
The COMPSA candidate debate will happen on Feb. 6 at 6 p.m. in Goodwin Hall, room 230. Voting is open from Feb. 8 to 9.
Tags
COMPSA, Computing Students’ Association, Elections 2026, Team AMA
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