Majors: International Business / Biology and Psychology with Cognitive Neuroscience Concentration
Minors: Public Policy, Leadership, and Finance / Leadership Studies and Chemistry
Years in School: Juniors
Campus Involvement:
Renganathan: Roosevelt (former-President) Research Assistant at Daniels Business Ethics and Legal Studies Department, Bass Beat Box for DU Idiosyncrasies, PLP
Sterling: Pre-Health Society (VP of Internal Collaborations), Delta Zeta, American Medical Women’s Association (President) Involved in Mental Health Task Force, PLP
Why are you running for USG President and Vice President?
R: Sophia and I have been involved in a variety of organizations in these three years: Sophia in STEM and natural sciences and me with business and public policy. We feel that given our breadth of experience, we’ve developed a unique skill set we can apply greatly to student government and DU. We also feel we have some great ideas on platform: we want to be an amplifying voice for students here on campus and bring their perspectives to administration and crowdsource that potential here on DU’s campus.
S: Our leadership skill sets work really well together and really being that supportive team for the student body—we are approachable, students can go to us with issues and concerns and positives, too. Both of us have really talked about ways in which we’ve seen DU have a potential for growth. Whether that be in making new positions, creating new bylaws, just putting more focus on some positions. Our leadership styles are very different, but they will help in unifying and creating a one DU.
What makes you qualified to represent the entire student body in their voices, opinions, and frustrations?
R: In the past couple months, Sophia and I have done what we’ve called a “Listening Tour”. We met with different student leaders and organizations to learn more about the organizations and concerns and how DU or USG as a whole can support them in their goals. We’ve met with 25-30 student leaders here on campus. We feel we have a good understanding of ideals of different pockets on campus. For me personally, I’ve been involved with a wide variety of clubs. In Roosevelt, I had a more assertive leadership role, and to contrast that with [my] nontechnical musical knowledge in Idiosyncrasies as a follower and listener…the interplay between those two experiences will suit me well.
S: For us as a pair, by jumping off our listening tour, we really got at the heart of students. We asked what are your concerns, what would you like to see changed, where do you want to see DU in five years? We’ve only been leaders in parts of this university, [so] we wanted to get those representational voices, and the listening tour really captured that. Another thing we are really interested in is the delegation of power among USG. We have a few positions being created, revamped, and more teams being made because we really believe that teamwork will help in getting things done. We want to make sure one person isn’t being tasked with all these things to do because one, you get stressed out, and two, nothing gets done. We’re interested in that delegation of power, so we really get at different student groups or different teams and get stuff done. For me individually, I think in just being a student leader in STEM, I have been able to lead different types of teams. A lot of people in these organizations aren’t in the sciences, so being able to have those different conversations is cool. I’m excited to bring my knowledge from “the other side of Iliff” and bring it to this ultimate Denver team that really is a unifying power.
What do you think is the biggest weakness in your campaign, and how are you addressing it?
S: We haven’t had USG experience before, and we don’t know a lot, but we’re really passionate about learning a lot. We’re excited to do that. We’re willing to accept as much help as we can because that’s the beautiful thing about leadership—it’s always a learning game.
R: That plays into our goal of fostering effective team building on campus; we hope to surround ourselves with people who are experts in their specific area and tap their knowledge and learn from them.
What are the top three issues you are bringing to the forefront of your platform?
- Transparency and Engagement: Oftentimes communications is lacking and people are confused and lost about what’s going on. So first, we are proposing to reintroduce the leadership assembly initiative from last year, and create a contract with the administrators to have administration representatives [to meet with] different organizations on campus as well as Sophia and me. To have an open forum where students can ask questions, learn about different organizations and learn about what the administration is doing. We also want to create a discernable outline for organization funding. One of the main themes that we heard during our Listening Tour is that student organizations are confused as to why they got “x” amount of funding if they asked for a different amount. Eliminate all those backends. When students organizations get issued funding, create an outline explaining why they were assigned the amount they were, and if they received lower than what they were requesting, explain the reason behind that.
- Mental Health Status: We’ve unfortunately faced a number of drug and alcohol misuses and different types of other kind of extreme actions that are unfortunately due to poor mental health. That sometimes can be inevitable: we are on the quarter system, we move fast, people are stressed, and it happens. In having those solid resources available and really just advertising to students I think is really important. DU provides a phenomenal array of resources for mental health; however, we’ve found they are not advertised to the best of their ability. Something we’re interested in creating is a Mental Health Secretary in USG, to really work with the HCC, Greek Life, and other student organizations to promote those resources that we have. We also want to promote different ways students can access help [because] even getting in to the HCC for a mental health appointment can be difficult.
- Sustainability: We want to work with the Green Greeks initiative, to partner with different FSL chapters to ensure that chapter houses are more energy-efficient and eco-friendly. We also want to build upon the REPS program. It is where a representative comes and audits your building and does recommendations on how to make your office more energy efficient. We want to work with HRE to see if we can make it feasible to individual rooms and dorms for students who want to reduce their environmental impact.
Yes or no, Boone or no Boone?
R & S: No.
It’s more than likely you will not be able to resolve every issue you speak to in your platform. How are you planning to deal with this predetermined failure and prepare the next student body government to continue your legacy?
R: We absolutely acknowledge that we will face obstacles and some of our platform ideas in a years’ time frame but we aspire to do to create clear communication structures and strengthen the infrastructure of USG itself as well so future student leaders can pursue the issues to them that matter the most and voice their concerns in an effective way.
At the end of the school year, how do you want your leadership team to be remembered?
R: [I want students to remember] Sophia and I as accessible leaders: we want to show our faces around campus, attend student events, we don’t want people to be intimidated or nervous…we want to give off the vibe that we’re one of you guys, an air of authenticity and sincerity surrounding us.
S: I would want the students to feel like we did something. If you look at our platform, a goal throughout the past three or four months that we’ve been saying, is that we really would hate to overpromise and underdeliver. When writing our platform, we had that in the back of our mind. Though they may not look like huge, grandiose steps to change, they’re littler steps that will build upon great change.
Thank you, and good luck!
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