sruthi ramesh

What relevant experience would you bring to the position you are seeking?

I have been a board member of a high school club as the role of a fundraiser, and through that experience, fund allocation was a crucial component of my responsibility. I have learned to manage the student organization's money by weighing each event's pros and cons. Having a different perspective as a former student organization fundraiser/treasurer, I would significantly contribute to SGA as a member of the Finance Board. In addition, my leadership experience at UMBC through the Mock Trial team will allow me to advocate for the community's expectations of the Finance Board effectively.

How do you intend on fulfilling your role while working alongside other members of SGA? What strategies do you use to address conflict?

I plan to fulfill my role by focusing on communicating effectively and listening to SGA members as they convey our student community's ideas. As an elected representative of the UMBC population, everyone's voice needs to be heard in the student governing body. To address conflict in the board, we must understand everyone's perspective as it helps us get a better sense of where their opinion or idea is coming from. The acceptance of everyone's thoughts in this forum allows the Finance board to have productive and efficient sessions and bring legislation that ultimately helps everyone in our community.

What is your vision for the funds that SGA has available to allocate to student organizations?

If elected, I would like to spend more time and resources making the campus more welcoming and easy to access by first semester students virtually. Having a strong sense of community is vital to one’s success at UMBC, so I would lobby to increase funding to organizations that specialize in new student academic and extra-curricular resources. Gaining access to these opportunities would benefit the future classes of UMBC students for years to come.

What do you think the Finance Board has done well? What do you think the Finance Board needs to improve?

The finance board has had a successful term, and through discussion, they have helped pass legislation to help student organizations through COVID. However, I think we should focus more on helping smaller organizations financially because student organizations are one of the only community activities that are easy for new students to join. Because of COVID, many academic opportunities and activities were restricted. With the better allocation of funding, there can be unique and more involved ways for students at UMBC to feel more a part of the community.