Shamdasani wants a connected, transparent UNC

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.

“It is all about going to students and not waiting for students to come to her,” Koeze said. “She wants to meet students in places where they already are.”

Koeze said part of what she thinks makes Shamdasani a desirable candidate is her experience.

“She has two years of experience and she isn’t jaded by it or the system,” Koeze said. “She really wants to change it and address the underlying problems of student government.”

Shamdasani said she plans to use her institutional knowledge to accomplish her many platform goals.

“We have relationships with administrators and the Board of Trustees and other more administrative-type contacts,” she said. “We could help people actually take action on their idea instead of just having the idea.”

Shamdasani said she also plans on making some changes to the studentlife.unc.edu website.

“I think we need to do a better job of making it searchable for students,” she said. “Right now you can see all of the service organizations, and we want to be able to see their missions and help students see what all of the organizations are doing.”

Tony Patterson, senior associate director of the Carolina Union, said he is working with the Student Leadership Advisory Committee to find ways to update the website.

“We are open to any changes to the site that can happen,” he said. “The main complaint is that student organizations don’t have a lot of information on their pages — (the group’s) page might look like no one is using it.”

Shamdasani said she wants to make it possible for all students to propose and follow through with their ideas.

“It’s not just about one student with one idea having to actively search for ways to make an impact based on that idea, it’s about all students having the capacity to do that, whether it’s online education or social justice, through Neighborland everything can be done.”

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