As a UC insider and outsider, the pair say they aim to improve student life and administrative decision-making by delivering four proposals related to summer storage, house renewal, student group funding, and the Smith Campus Center.
Meghamsh Kanuparthy ’16 met Ema H. Horvath ’16 freshman year when he knocked on her Matthews Hall door as part of his first ever campaign for the Undergraduate Council. Realizing they both hailed from Kentucky, they bonded over a shared background.
\r\nWhile Kanuparthy began his tenure on the UC as an Elm Yard representative that freshman fall, Horvath spent her time on the stage, playing Katherina in a student production of “The Taming of the Shrew.”
\r\nKanuparthy would later serve as the UC’s historian, secretary, and now as its treasurer. Horvath similarly expanded her theatrical pursuits as a member of the Harvard-Radcliffe Dramatic Club.
\r\nWhen Kanuparthy began to seriously consider running for UC president this past summer, he said that he struggled to find a running mate. He said that he initially asked other UC insiders to run with him, but none were willing to run as his vice-president, instead opting to headline tickets of their own for the UC presidency.
\r\n“I actually did ask a couple of people on the UC to run with me,” Kanuparthy said. “They’re both currently running for president, but I’m still friends with them.”
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\r\nWhen Horvath heard in September that Kanuparthy intended to run for UC president, she said she offered to manage her friend’s campaign, having no intention of being on the ticket itself but wanting to explore a newfound interest in politics.
\r\nNow the two aspire to represent the student body together as UC president and vice president. They claim their partnership brings both experience and a fresh perspective to the ticket.
\r\nAs a UC insider and outsider, the pair say they aim to improve student life and administrative decision-making by delivering four proposals related to summer storage, house renewal, student group funding, and the Smith Campus Center.
\r\n“It’s important to have leaders who both have experience and at the same time can take a step back and look at it from a different perspective,” Kanuparthy said.
\r\nA Politician and an Actor
\r\nAccumulating years of experience on the UC makes Kanuparthy confident that he can lead the organization, while Horvath said that she can use the communication skills she developed as a performer.
\r\nKanuparthy, who originally hails from Louisville, Ky., will soon switch to a chemistry concentration from economics and chairs the Kirkland House Committee.
\r\nAlexander F. Weickhardt ’16, one of Kanuparthy’s roommates, describes him as “one of those people who knows a lot of people in the House and is really outgoing.”
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\r\n“He really wants to contribute to the Harvard community,” Weickhardt said. “He’s still really close to his PAF-ees from last year, and he had a big get-together with them and you can just tell that they loved him. At one point they just started chanting, ‘That’s my PAF!’”
\r\nIn terms of his participation in the UC, Kanuparthy said that moving up the ranks of the Council, including directing four of its five committees, first helped him realize that he could have a bigger impact on the organization and its future as president.
\r\n“I decided that if I want to make an impact on the culture of this organization, if I want to make an impact on the student body, I might as well run and see where it goes,” he said.
\r\nHorvath, on the other hand, has never participated in the UC. As an actor on campus, Horvath describes her social group as generally uninvolved in student representation to University and College administrators.
\r\nHorvath, an English concentrator living in Quincy, has performed in plays including “The Thing About Air Travel” and “A Streetcar Named Desire” during her time at Harvard.
\r\n“I come from a constituency who never votes,” Horvath said.
\r\nBut when last year’s presidential and vice presidential winners Samuel B. Clark ’15 and Gus A. Mayopoulos ’15 succeeded in their joke campaign for UC leadership, Horvath said, she became deeply interested in the UC’s affairs.
\r\nThough some might question the relevance of her acting background to representing the student body, Horvath said she thinks the communication skills that she gained through performance will enable the pair to lead a successful campaign.
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\r\n“Someone asked Ronald Reagan how an actor could be president, and he said he didn’t understand how a president couldn’t be an actor. I think that’s very true, in terms of being effective, and an effective communicator, and being adamant in what I want,” Horvath said.
\r\nReferring to her 12 years of experience with communication exercises in theater school, Horvath also said that fulfilling a leadership role requires adopting a confident facade.
\r\n“A lot of it is faking it. Not being unsure of yourself is extremely important, [and] presenting the image that you’re someone the administration should listen to and needs to listen to,” she said. “I know how to be a squeaky wheel.”
\r\nA PLATFORM THAT (HOPES TO) DELIVER
\r\nKanuparthy and Horvath promise to bring undergraduates four “deliverables”: guaranteed summer storage in the Houses, the chance to review floor plans of Houses that will undergo renewal with an eye toward keeping in-suite common rooms, better funding for new and small student groups, and increased transparency during the ongoing development of the Smith Campus Center.
\r\nHorvath explained her frustration with the College’s current storage situation. Following renewal, Quincy no longer offers space for students to store belongings over the summer, a development which will likely affect all Houses as the renewal process continues. Kanuparthy added that Harvard does not cover the cost of external storage providers.
\r\n“Not every House has free storage…. That is unfair, that some students have free storage in their Houses and others don’t,” she said. “I had to pay $400 out of pocket this summer for storage.”
\r\nThe two promise that if elected, they will work to ensure that all students can store items in their Houses or obtain reimbursements from the College for any storage costs incurred.
\r\nAddressing problems that he feels exist in the current UC funding process, Kanuparthy plans to expand funding opportunities for newly founded clubs and those with fewer members and resources.
\r\n“Currently, UC funding privileges larger groups and ones that can get big turnout for events, which may not be the case for a group working on establishing itself,” Kanuparthy said.
\r\nKanuparthy and Horvath also advocate for the preservation of private in-suite common rooms. They argue that they will be able to influence House renovation plans that will be under review in the upcoming year.
\r\n“They’re getting rid of in-suite common rooms to have common rooms in the hallway, and we think that’s a really bad idea,” \xa0Kanuparthy said. “There are not too many social spaces on campus that belong to students. You know, your suite. Unless you’re in a final club, frat, or sorority, these are the spaces that belong to you.”
\r\nFinally, the two promise to advocate for increased social space in the Smith Campus Center, which is currently under renovation and set to open to students in 2018.
\r\n“It would be great to have more undergraduate space there, which I don’t think is the current intention from what whispers come out of the secret Smith campus planning center committee,” Kanuparthy said.
\r\nStill, the duo realize that accomplishing their goals is easier said than done. To that end, they want students to vote for them as leaders, ideas aside.
\r\n“The issues that are big now may not be the issues that are big later. The platform things are probably going to go out of the window in the majority of cases,” Kanuparthy said. “I think what won’t change is the people who you elect are the people who are going to represent you for the next year.”
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\r\nYes.
\r\nDo you believe the UC can increase its yearly budget by 50 percent or more by the time you graduate?
\r\nNo. But we'll damn well try.
\r\nDo you support allowing the UC to fund alcohol through its general grants?
\r\nNo. The last time we did this we got our funding cut off for a bit. The Office of the General Counsel at Harvard already decided in 2008 that the College couldn't condone the UC's funding alcohol.
\r\nWhat is a major way in which you will differ from Gus and Sietse’s approach to running the Council?
\r\nWe're switching the roles of the insider and outsider. But seriously, we'd like to do a lot of the same things.
How often do you think students should have to sign an affirmation of integrity under the College’s new honor code?
\r\nOn every major assignment: midterms, research papers, finals, large projects.
\r\nWould 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?
\r\nIt depends. Council structural reform is a topic that can mire an administration and requires serious thought. That being said, for right now, the house/yard representation seems like a pragmatic solution.
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