Q&A: Ava Nasrollahzadeh ’16  and Dhruv P. Goyal ’16

Do you support modifying Harvard's current sexual assault and misconduct policy to include affirmative consent?

Yes. Harvard's current sexual assault policy is well behind that of many of the Ivies and other schools when it comes to affirmative consent. We feel strongly about creating a safe space of equal opportunity on campus, and affirmative consent is an important component of this.

Do you believe the UC can increase its yearly budget by 50% or more by the time you graduate?

Yes. We believe that attempts to get more money from the administration have proved unsuccessful (e.g.250K campaign), and therefore we need a new model of external funding. Alumni have been very receptive to giving a part of their contributions to improving student life—by helping increase student group funding. Therefore, we have a clear mission of increasing the budget by leveraging alumni donations.

Do you support allowing the UC to fund alcohol through its general grants?

Everyone loves a good martini now and then, but funding alcohol through general grants may not be the best way for us to create community. Also, in 2007, UC President Ryan Peterson tried to fund alcohol, but the administration made it very clear that it is not an option and pulled the plug on UC funding for a few weeks, until the UC agreed to back down. Therefore, we would not compromise funding for all student groups, in an attempt to fund alcohol.

What is a major way in which you will differ from Gus and Sietse’s approach to running the Council?

We acknowledge the fact that we are not as funny and would not be able to match Gus’ humor but we can deliver clear, digestible infographics to simplify complex issues. Check out our facebook page for an example of an infographic we made for the UHS Stillman case. Infographics are much easier to read relative to long 20 page documents.

How often do you think students should have to sign an affirmation of integrity under the College’s new honor code?

Since Dhruv has done research on this topic as chair of Education Committee, we think that students should sign an affirmation at the beginning of documents that they submit for a grade. This broadly includes lab reports, problem sets, papers or any variant of exams. They should sign the affirmation once for every document.

Would you have supported a referendum question calling on the Council to reform its structures and do away with electing representatives based on houses and yards?

No.