The Storrs Undergraduate Student Government (USG) announced Andy Zhang (he/him/his) and Haritha Subramanian (she/her/hers) as the 2025 presidential elects on March 16. The pair sat with reporters from the Daily Campus last week to discuss their upcoming administration.
Zhang, a sixth-semester environmental science and economics major and Subramanian, a sixth-semester political science and music major with an individualized major in women’s reproductive health, were both overjoyed following the election.
“I did squeal when I found out,” said Subramanian. “I was very, very anxious. We had just met with the judiciary and were then outside of the room. We were anxiously waiting for the results. It took like an hour. Finally, the chief justice came out, I had left the room cause I was like, ‘this is just too much for me right now, I’m just gonna get out of here for a bit.’ Then the chief justice came in and told Andy we’d won.”
Zhang was excited as well, glad to be able to put a long month of campaigning behind the two of them.
“There was a lot of joy, of course,” he said. “Then afterwards I kinda just went home. I was excited for this chapter of campaigning to end and then excited for the chapter of our presidency to start. We’ve been campaigning for all of like February, and it’s very tiring. Campaigning is one of those things where you always feel like you can do more, so I was excited that that finally paid off.”
The presidential elects told the Daily Campus their plans for the beginning of their administration largely focuses on logistical work: building relationships with university administration and working with the current USG administration to ensure a smooth transition into their term.
“This whole month is going to be meeting with the current administration and the current advocacy directors, a lot of whom are seniors,” said Subramanian. “So, this is our last chance to learn what went well, what didn’t go so well. USG often works on projects that span over multiple years and we definitely want to make sure that we are carrying on all the hard work that they’ve already done. That’s very important to us.”
Haritha Subramanian, UConn’s new Undergraduate Student Government Vice President. Photo courtesy of USG.
Zhang had a similar sentiment, hoping to bring some consistency to USG.
“One of the biggest things that I want to make sure of is that there is continuity within USG because everyone’s working one-year terms,” he said. “As a result of that, it’s very easy for knowledge to be lost… We’re making sure that we’re talking with them [the current USG administration] and making sure we can support the projects they’ve already done and what we can learn from their wins and losses.”
To do so, the pair needs to accurately gauge the current climate on campus, according to Subramanian.
“The first thing we want to do is center ourselves within the environment we are working in,” she said. “Right now, we are working with a bunch of issues that students are directly seeing. On campus, you are seeing a housing shortage, you’re seeing threats to marginalized communities, especially coming from the federal government, a lot of mental health resources are needed.”
Subramanian continued, saying that considering these issues their administration will focus largely on social justice and sustainability on campus.
“Our two big themes, especially given the work we do outside of USG as well, would definitely be social justice and sustainability. Those are two issues that we are very much passionate about. We definitely hope to see that centralized throughout our work in this administration.”
Zhang, who is also the former USG director of communications, added how the pair hopes to make communication and transparency a central tenet of their administration, something he believes students see as lacking in USG.
“I think a lot of it is going to focus on community and communication. What we’ve learned from being involved in all these different things is that community is so central. It is so central to be interdisciplinary and knowledgeable about the world outside of this USG bubble,” he said. “Something that we want to push for and work on is making sure we’re connecting to the broader UConn community. Working with university departments and academic departments so that there is some continuity throughout our initiatives.”
Zhang elaborated on his experience as director of communications and his plan to collaborate with his replacement.
“I previously served as the director of communications and one of my big things was, I wanted to increase transparency,” he said. “That’s something I want to continue to work on with the next director of communications. Making sure that we’re communicating, we’re talking and that students are aware of the impacts of our initiatives are having and what we are actively doing.”
Subramanian emphasized how crucial this first month is in developing that trust among the student body.
“One thing we tried to really emphasize during the campaign was trust and communication and how we build that,” she said. “This first month is just so integral to building the groundwork for that; rebuilding trust in a lot of places.”
Andy Zhang, UConn’s new Undergraduate Student Government President. Photo courtesy of USG.
However, the pair recognizes that these are promises students have heard before.
“I was looking back at past USGs, and they’ve always run on the same campaigns, ‘we’re gonna rebuild trust, we’re gonna rebuild transparency,’” said Zhang. “Something we are going to try and do is making sure that we’re actually going to try and do these things so it’s not something we just repeat and say because we feel like we’re in a position to say it.”
To address these concerns, the pair is looking to enact an open-door policy for their administration.
“Something we want to implement is an open-door policy, so regardless of who you are you can always have a landline to connect with me and Haritha,” said Zhang. “Something that we want to make sure Tier III orgs know, that RSOs [registered student organizations] know, that students know, is if they have an initiative, if they have an idea, if they want any support that we’re always here to work with them and support them in any way we can.”
USG is also currently accepting applications for open positions within its staff, according to Subramanian.
“This month will be filled with hiring; we are currently taking applications. So, if people are interested in working for USG they should totally apply,” she said.
Zhang and Subramanian will be sworn in this Wednesday, April 2.