Harshitha Ramanan (she/her)

Presidential Candidate
Independent
Austin, TX
Neuroscience, Conceptual Foundations of Medicine

Hello Everyone! My name is Harshitha Ramanan and I am a sophomore Neuroscience major. A little fun fact about me: I have lived in India, Dubai, Bahrain, England, California, Texas, and Pennsylvania. I plan on running as President for SGB during this election season. Why? Because I love this school but it still has a long way to go to truely represent the student body’s wants and needs. Here are a few things I would like to focus on are: Keeping the virtual option existent post-pandemic and growing flex at Pitt. Pre-pandemic there was a lot of disparity with recorded lectures and the flexibility in classes. Post-pandemic I hope to continue developing our current system to better serve the students at this school. Working on making the campus more disability-friendly. Have you ever sprained your ankle and tried to make it up to your lecture in Chevron or Trees Hall? It’s a hard journey on a regular basis but imagine that with a broken foot and crutches or in a wheelchair. Are you aware of professors having close captions for students struggling to hear or signs to help students that have a hard time seeing get around campus? As far as disability resources at our direct disposal, we lack in what we have to offer and I would like to remedy our current situation. Renewing the focus on clubs to build a sense of community on campus. College is all about building connections whether that may be networking or building friendships. We have countless clubs on campus but many students have a hard time making their way through this extensive list and figuring out what to get involved in. Instead of only one club fair per semester, I propose SGB through programs in partnership with more clubs on campus so that they are not only recognized but also students are exposed to more opportunities sitting in front of them. Having students get more involved in the larger community and giving back to the place we call home. Service work is important to me as a person and many students are always looking for ways to increase their volunteer hours. I propose creating some sort of program that allows students to come together each semester to help make our community more of what we would like it to be. This could be anything from doing a clothing drive to building a self-sustaining home for our large homeless population. Making physical and mental health resources more widely known and available for students. The education regarding the student health center and resources avaible to students is very lacking. College does not pass any of us by without challenges but often students suffer alone without knowing where to turn to. I would like to bring more attention to health for all communities on campus because that is the core to our wellbeing. Having emergency services made more available (e.g.Title 9 Office, Student Health Services). A lot of our emergency resources are time restricted to when students have class. This means we can not use the services the school provides us to the fullest extent. I hope to make these services more accessible to students at times where students are more likely to need things such as: the student health center past 6p.m. when most student are done with class or the Title 9 Office on a Saturday night. These are just a few of the things that I am passionate about and hope to continue improving in our amazing school. But, the thing that is most important to me is hearing the larger student body voice and being a true representative of that. I want to hear what you have to say and I want to make it happen. This is our school and I want our time here something we cherish for the rest of our lives. Many of you are probably wondering what makes me qualified to run for this position? I am a unique candidate for this position because I have no prior experience with SGB however this means I have a fresh perspective which will allow me to push boundaries and accomplish more of what the student body wants. Additionally, I have held leadership positions within Pitt Res Life being heaving involved in Resident Student Government (as Vice President of Programming) and being a Resident Assistant. I am also the president of the club, Pitt Association of the Blind. Being heavily involved in these organizations, in addition to others, has allowed me to network with many other organizations, meet countless students and identify the areas of improvement for our school a few of which I listed above and I hope to work on. I hope I have your vote:)