Nischal Vasant was never in love with politics. Growing up in Mumbai, India, he never envisioned he would work for the University at Buffalo's Student Association, yet alone become president of the organization.
As of last Thursday, Vasant became UB's first international SA president-elect, winning the election with 1,153 votes.
When choosing where to study after grade school, Vasant, who speaks three languages, wanted a "global perspective" and said he was thinking about Australia and Singapore, but came to America because of the freedom offered in coursework.
"UB really promotes itself outside of the U.S.," Vasant said. "I didn't know what I was getting into with the weather, though."
In Mumbai, according to Vasant, the temperature rarely gets below 70 degrees. His first experience with snow was the infamous October Storm.
"I was excited. I'd never seen snow before," Vasant said. "It was literally piled up to my head. But I had a lot of fun that day. There was no water, electricity, nothing, but it was a lot of fun."
Vasant also enjoys the summer months in the Queen City. He said the highlight of the summer is Thursday in the Square.
"I love live music, that's one of my favorite things, and so Buffalo during the summer is an absolute blast," Vasant said.
The future SA president has also traveled to New York City and Toronto, but hasn't ventured too far into the surrounding areas of Buffalo.
Vasant left behind his hometown – which he labels the New York City of India – and his family to study at UB. Upon winning the election he immediately called home, but to no answer, as it was 4 a.m. halfway across the world. However, he did finally get a hold of his parents, and said they were thrilled and very proud of his hard work and that he has gotten so far on his own.
He is confident that his involvement with SA will garner interest in more international students, which he says makes up about 11 percent of the UB student population.
"It's kind of humbling … to know that I am the first international student [to win]," Vasant said. "I feel like it leaves a potential to open the floodgates, so to speak."
A computer engineering major and current SA Senator, Vasant said becoming president wasn't always on his to-do list. Starting as a Web site manager for SA in 2007, he saw potential for the organization to change and become better under his leadership.
"I could tell that SA was not reaching its full potential," Vasant said. "As a student government, you should be focusing more on trying to help students rather than to entertain."
Vasant said entertainment is a necessary part of what SA does, but there are many other issues to focus on, including cuts to UB from the SUNY level.
"It's important when this comes up to figure out a solution from our end and to be prepared for the [UB] administration and for Albany," Vasant said. "With these cuts to the SUNY system we need more rallies, we need to send buses full of students down to Albany to show the legislators that we're going to do something against it, I think this is something SA should do."
Along with preparing for the worst, Vasant said the first thing to do is set up a base in which he can deliver on his platform. He said he would also like to see SA become more open to the students.
He added that part of his plan is to set up short-term and long-term goals for his presidency.
"[I want] to say, ‘This is where I'd like to see SA going 10 years from now, and these are the things we're going to do this year that will move SA in that direction,' " Vasant said.
When it comes to opening up SA, Vasant says it's a tricky ordeal, especially with 19,000 students.
"Some [students] are very involved, some of them are very opinionated, and some of them are not," Vasant said. "But I think it's very, very, very important that SA is listening to the students and at least making a legitimate attempt to reach out to every student."
E-mail: news@ubspectrum.com
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