The Salary He Donated

The New York City shutdown began in March 2020. That spring Victor Kiani joined student government at CUNY Queensborough as a Senator at Large, and that November he ran for President Pro Tempore and won.

The work

The seat carried more than the gavel: with the sitting Executive Vice President set to step down, everyone knew the winner would assume that office, which made it the most contested race in the government. Within weeks he did, for the following term, and the University Student Senate, CUNY's system-wide student government, brought him on as an advisor. Most of his hours went into the unglamorous part: helping students stay steady through a year that knocked a lot of them sideways.

What the year looked like

Queensborough is a community college in Queens, the borough the pandemic hit hardest in those first months. Its students were among the city's most economically exposed, and the year came for them first:

Figures: Office of the New York City Comptroller; a CUNY Graduate School of Public Health survey of 2,282 students, April 2020, published in the Journal of Urban Health.

The salary

The campus food pantry was where those numbers became people. The role paid a salary, and the year had not spared him either; the money would have helped. He judged it would help more where the need was sharpest, and donated every cent of it to the pantry, for the students he'd been elected to serve. It wasn't a gesture; it was the most direct thing the position could actually do.

What it showed

• A mandate is a responsibility, not a prize. The point of the seat is the people behind it.
• Do the most direct thing. Sometimes the highest-leverage move is the simplest one.
• Show up in the year that's hard. That's when representation actually means something.