An executive branch insider, Nikita Shamdasani says she already has a clear idea of what she would want UNC to look like under her leadership — connected and transparent.
Her campaign for student body president centers around taking the ideas of students and effectively tapping into them to make those visions become a reality.
She said she plans to do this using a website called Neighborland, which allows students to communicate their ideas to one another. Students can support an already existing idea by clicking the “Me Too” button.
“From the very beginning, I thought we needed to shake up student government’s idea generation mechanism,” she said.
“The reason we proposed that is because realistically more and more cuts are coming from the North Carolina legislature. As a North Carolina resident, I understand that we have paid taxes and that’s helping subsidize education, but a lot of out-of-state students stay in here and they are contributing to the North Carolina system.”
Shamdasani has been involved in student government since her freshman year when she was the executive assistant to former Student Body President Mary Cooper. In 2012-13, Shamdasani served as student body secretary.
Shamdasani said she was inspired to run for student body president partly because of those experiences.
“One thing I was frustrated with is that there were some fundamental problems that involved us not reaching out to students and then not being transparent to students,” she said.
Ella Koeze, one of Shamdasani’s campaign managers, said Shamdasani is focused on representing students.
