Indian-American Elected President of Harvard University’s Student Body

An Indian-American woman has been elected as the president of reputed Harvard University’s student body, which is known as a powerful student body among universities in the United States.

The Harvard Crimson, the daily student newspaper of Harvard University reported on Nov.16 that Sruthi Palaniappan, 20, has been elected as President of the Harvard University Undergraduate Council. Her running mate Julia M. Huesa, also 20, has been elected as the Vice President of this student body.

Both will be leading the student body in 2019 after taking the charge from current UC President Catherine L. Zhang and Vice President Nicholas D. Boucher, both 19, in December this year, said the report.

According to a report in PTI, Palaniappan’s parents belong to Chennai and moved to the U.S. in 1992.

Telling about their plans to lead the student body, Palaniappan told The Harvard Crimson that at the beginning of their term, she and Huesa want to work on improving the Council’s communication with the student body.

“I think from the onset, better structuring the way we communicate with students I think is something that we need to already set the tone and plan for,” she was quoted by the paper as saying.

“I think we’re going to work on it before we even leave for break and just get off the ground running,” added Palaniappan, who is currently serving as council’s education committee Chair.

Palaniappan and Huesa, who ran their campaign under the slogan “make Harvard home” got roughly 41.5 percent of the vote total. Their nearest opponents Nadine M. Khoury, and Arnav Agrawal, both 20, received 26.6 percent of the vote, reported the paper.