Outgoing UC Leaders Say They Achieved Major Goals

As she prepares to step down from the job Sunday, Undergraduate Council President Yasmin Z. Sachee '18 said one of the proudest accomplishments of her year-long tenure was funding “bridge programs” for freshmen during Opening Days.

“Seeing what student groups came up with to welcome freshmen was really, really special and I’m really, really happy with that,” she said. Sachee and UC Vice President Cameron K. Khansarinia worked with the Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations to fund social events for dozens of student groups to welcome first-year students.

Sachee said she was also proud of an initiative that created a centralized “Q guide” to evaluate different student groups’ comp processes. She said she hopes the guide will spark further conversation surrounding issues of inclusivity inherent in Harvard's comp system.

“I feel like we’ve begun a really important dialogue and put data and people’s actual comments on paper or on website, by which hopefully this can go forth into the future,” she said.

UC Vice President Cameron K. Khansarinia ’18 said he thinks he and Sachee broadly achieved their campaign promises to support freshmen, improve social experiences, and enhance College life in general. He and Sachee ran in November 2016 on a campaign centered on those three tenets, which they dubbed “arriving, vibing, thriving."

“Everyone goes in knowing it’s impossible to accomplish all of those,” he said. “I think we’re really pleased with the fact that in each of those main areas, two of which Yaz mentioned, we were able to kind of tick off the biggest one.”

Sachee said that had duo had more free time, they would have spent it advocating for Drug and Alcohol Peers Advisors to become more involved in on-campus parties.

Khansarinia also said he and Sachee recently met with House Faculty Deans to discuss reinvigorating social life in upperclassmen Houses. He said he believes these conversations will improve House social life going forward.

“I think we set the stage for a lot of those party things to happen in the Houses,” he said. “We may not have accomplished it, but we laid the groundwork for that to keeping going forward.”

Ahead of UC President-elect Catherine L. Zhang ’19 and Vice President-elect Nicholas D. Boucher ’19’s swearing-in this Sunday, Sachee said she’s excited for the new leaders.

Zhang is “such an incredible, caring, and inspiring leader. I think she is really going to take the Council to new directions," she said. "And Nick has done wonders for the Council on the tech side, and I think incorporating his tech knowledge into some further Council projects could be really, really exciting for the Council."

"So I’m excited for them,” she said.

Khansarinia said he thinks Zhang and Boucher’s respective leadership styles mean the duo will make a good team.

“I think it’s the perfect combination of the optimist and the technocrat and they’re going to balance each other very well and use those two personalities to get a lot done,” Khansarinia said.

Sachee and Khansarinia said they plan to meet with Dean of the College Rakesh Khurana sometime in the next week.

—Staff writer Andrew J. Zucker can be reached at andrew.zucker@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @andrewjzucker.