The U’s Indian Student Association is getting democratic.
For the first time in its history, the group held an election for next year’s governing body, in comparison to its previous practice of unanimously selecting a committee of leaders.
Karthik Ramanathan of the Common Sense party won the election, along with his committee.
“We got both the things we wanted,” Ramanathan said after hearing the results.
The voting kicked off at 10 a.m. in the Union building and the announcement was made at about 5 p.m. outside of the Associated Students of the University of Utah office.
The only other party was the United party, and voters had to to choose between one or the other, rather than voting for individual candidates for the four positions.
“It’s really great to see you guys so involved. We’ll be looking forward to working with you,” said ASUU President Adrian Johnson to a crowd of about 20 association members.
ASUU will look to work more closely with Indian students in this upcoming year than before, especially due to some constitutional changes in the association.
Voters-along with electing the new committee-had the opportunity to change previous association practices, including allowing any member to be considered for candidacy, instead of the previous practice of allowing only new students, and also abolished the group’s $10 registration fee.
Both changes were touted by the Common Sense party.
Now, all funding for activities-like the annual Diwali festivities, which have brought a total of more than 1,000 visitors to the Union over the last two years-will come from ASUU, Ramanathan said.
According to Amol Deshpande, last year’s president, the Indian community on campus grew by 150 students to total more than 300.
“I hope ISA keeps growing,” he said after the election.