[vc_row][vc_column][ultimate_heading main_heading=”Our Pick: Aditya Jhaveri” main_heading_font_size=”desktop:45px;”][/ultimate_heading][ultimate_spacer height=”20″][vc_separator][vc_column_text]
The College Council (CC) presidency is not an easy position to fill, but the Editorial Board believes that Aditya Jhaveri (21C) is up for the challenge. His platform is structured around three overarching goals: revising financial and budgetary issues, promoting diversity, and encouraging collaboration and entrepreneurship within the student body.
CC has experienced tumult and drastic change during Jhaveri’s time at Emory. Up until two years ago, CC had a surplus of funds, which allowed clubs to request supplementary funds in addition to their year-long operational budgets. Now, with CC’s surplus all but gone, the organization is under intense pressure to restructure its financial policies.
As CC’s vice president of finance, Jhaveri spent most of this academic year reforming the budget allocation system to decrease the amount of supplementary funds that are distributed to student organizations. As president, Jhaveri hopes to stabilize it, creating a system more dependent on operational funding by increasing monetary transparency, reforming treasurers’ training and making financial documentation more accessible to the student body.
Jhaveri has more institutional expertise than the other candidates in navigating CC’s financial policies. He is well-versed in programs such as Eagle Source and Campus Labs, which facilitate all communication between CC and the student body. Other candidates have lofty plans for financial reform, but Jhaveri has the real-world experience to give him unique insight into which reforms are both necessary and prudent.
Jhaveri plans to advance cultural competency, facilitate CC’s awareness of misinformation and reinforce the connection between Emory and the Oxford campus. The Wheel’s Editorial Board has repeatedly criticized the ostracization of Oxford students on the Atlanta campus and called for student initiatives to combat related stereotypes. As few Emory students are truly aware of the unique challenges Oxford students face, we believe Jhaveri’s focus on this issue is significant.
Jhaveri also supports equitable policies such as advocating for low-income students to receive academic accommodations for disabilities and lobbying the University to enforce its Religious Holiday Observance Accommodation more equally. Other candidates did not articulate such novel ideas, and his equitable policy proposals will be a breath of fresh air in CC.
However, while we fully support Jhaveri’s platform, the Wheel’s Editorial Board would have appreciated a more detailed statement of how he will carry out many of his proposals.
Jhaveri envisions a network of student leaders that mobilizes to find resources and collaborates to achieve similar goals. Although this may seem like a lofty dream, Jhaveri has personal experience using his own agency to better the student body. Last Fall, he petitioned the Constitutional Council to investigate corruption surrounding the referendum to adjust the student activity fee (SAF). Moreover, Jhaveri has worked alongside the Wheel to inform the student body of possible corruption, thereby holding Emory’s Student Government Association’s (SGA) accountable to its mandate and encouraging it to do so in the future.
The next CC president will face a variety of issues that require in-depth experience and strong leadership. Emory’s response to the novel coronavirus pandemic will have profound ramifications for all of student government and will put increased pressure on the next CC president. His challenges will be many, and they will be formidable. As the Editorial Board, we trust Jhaveri to rise to each and every one.
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