Akaash Palaparthy, a fourth-year economics and international development studies major with a minor in applied statistics, is running uncontested for vice-president operations on the TRANSFORM UTSC slate in the Scarborough Campus Students’ Union (SCSU) general elections, with three main campaign focuses.
First, he aims to increase the transparency of how the SCSU allocates student funds, in part by making the union’s monthly income statements more visually appealing to students.
Second, he aims to make the food options at the Student Centre “more budget friendly” and add food items that would better cater to students’ diverse dietary needs.
Lastly, he wants to provide discounts to UTSC students on entertainment options such as concerts, sports games, and movie theatres. “I think UTSC is a very isolated campus… so we [want to] encourage students to go out and engage with the city life,” he said in an interview with The Varsity.
Palaparthy is currently an inter-house sports convener for UTSC’s Department of Athletics and Recreation and a teaching assistant in the Department of Management. Previously, he worked as a senior leader for the SCSU’s Frosh Orientation, the logistics co-director of the International Development Conference at UTSC, and external director of the Sustainable Innovation Group.
Palaparthy also said that his academic background and use of data analysis tools will allow him to “modernize and streamline” the SCSU’s operations.
