Sachee and Khansarinia Sworn In as UC Leaders

Yasmin Z. Sachee ’18 and Cameron K. Khansarinia ’18, who won last month’s Undergraduate Council presidential election, were sworn in as next year’s President and Vice President of the UC during Sunday’s general meeting.

Dean of Students Katherine G. O’Dair administered the inauguration ceremony, during which Sachee and Khansarinia swore the UC’s oath of office and took over leadership of the Council from previous UC President Shaiba Rather ’17 and Vice President Daniel V. Banks ’17.

During her opening remarks as president, Sachee emphasized the importance of unifying the Council under their “shared goal” of “serving the student body.” In his remarks, Khansarinia said he would work to create an efficient Council, but urged representatives to speak up even if they held unpopular opinions.

“Efficiency should not leave out dissension. Efficiency should not leave out discussion,” Khansarinia said.

Rather and Banks, in their closing remarks, reflected on their time in UC leadership and gave advice to the incoming leaders. Rather emphasized the importance of having a vision for the Council and for campus, and Banks spoke about the importance of continuing to work to better campus despite inevitable failures along the way.

“There is no student sitting on the Board of Overseers; there is no freshman grill. There are so many things we failed at,” Banks said. “But know that failure is fleeting, and you can move on and keep going.”

The UC also held elections Sunday for next year’s secretary and treasurer.

Mather House representative Nicholas D. Boucher ’19 was elected UC treasurer in a race against Crimson Yard representative Nadine Khoury ’20 and Quincy House representative Olu Oisaghie ’19. Leverett House representative Ruiqi He ’19 was elected UC secretary in a six-way race for the position.

Also serving on next year’s UC Executive Board will be newly elected Finance Committee Chair Neel Mehta ’18 and re-elected Student Life Committee Chair Berkeley Brown ’18.

The Council also passed its final grants pack of the semester, sponsored by UC Finance Committee Chair William A. Greenlaw ’17. Greenlaw emphasized the success of his committee’s sexual assault prevention training program, which held its most recent training last week.

“We are almost near the 200 mark for the number of people we have successfully trained in sexual assault prevention since this program began,” Greenlaw said.

The UC also passed two freshman-focused pieces of legislation at Sunday’s meeting. The first, sponsored by Oak Yard representative Katie Wang ’20, allocated $500 for improvements and repairs for freshman common rooms. Wang, a Crimson contributing news writer and designer, said the funds would be used for small-scale improvements such as replacing markers and adding new plants to common rooms.

The second piece of legislation allocated an additional $500 for party equipment as part of the UC’s larger “Everything But Alcohol” initiative. Ivy Yard representative Sruthi Palaniappan ’20, who sponsored the legislation with Wang and Oak Yard representative Michael Scherr ’20, said the legislation could allow the Freshman Class Committee to rent out party materials to freshmen.

“We would also be able to tailor the program in the future based on how many people are requesting certain items,” Palaniappan said.

—Staff writer Brian P. Yu can be reached at brian.yu@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @brianyu28.