University of Michigan student body president pushes peers to get involved
Outside of school, University of Michigan Student Assembly President Abhishek Mahanti might seem like any other 21-year-old college senior.
When he provides his age, he notes with dry humor, “finally.” He’s also quick to list a diverse range of hobbies and interests.
“I really like computers; I like anything to do with geeking out on the Internet,” he says. “I have a pretty extensive vinyl record collection, and I deejay from time to time. Besides that, I like ping-pong a lot, and being a left-handed Capricorn. That’s about it -- it’s a pretty simple life."
A computer science engineering major, Mahanti lives with seven roommates in a century-old house on Packard. A cardboard sign affixed to the front door reads “Welcome to eecshouse,” in which the “eecs” stands for electrical engineering and computer science, a department within the University of Michigan. The students living in the house are EECS majors, friends and a handful are leaders in student organizations.
The house even has a page on Facebook, which currently boasts around 70 fans.
“The name was kind of a joke in the beginning, and our existence has been always kind of whimsical,” Mahanti acknowledges. “[But] we’ve built some pretty lasting relationships. We like to talk about big things — a lot of my success can be attributed to eecshouse and the people I’ve met through living there.”
Mahanti was elected student body president in the spring, representing a newly-formed political party called the “Michigan Vision Party,” which he organized with some friends. Among the party’s top priorities is increasing student interest and involvement in U-M’s student government.
Susan Wilson, director of student activities and leadership at U-M, said that Mahanti has the personality to do that.
“He is an excellent listener,” she said. “He listens to understand and is exceedingly patient, which are important qualities in someone who hopes to represent such a diverse student body.”
The party’s other primary objectives are transparency, by making sure all student government activities are known to the public, and accountability, by being committed to completing student government projects and, if they fail, to understanding where they went wrong and how to improve them.
“We had a narrow approach of what we thought student government should do,” Mahanti said. “At the end, our team really pulled through. I was successful as well as my vice president (Mike Rorro), and a lot of other representatives from our party also won.”
Since then, Mahanti has been busy working on assorted student government projects and activities. Lately, he’s been helping put funding in the hands of various student groups.
“Student organizations are a big thing on campus; we have over 1200 of them," Mahanti said. "A lot of them come to the student government for funding to carry on their events and all that planning,” he said. “Over the summer we’ve been allocating thousands of dollars to student organizations to do some really cool things.”
Other current priorities include creation of a new Web site for the Michigan Student Assembly (a campaign promise), as well as the development of another new Web site for students called Michipedia.
“It’s basically a Michigan encyclopedia for students to use as a resource,” Mahanti said.
Mahanti also aspires to strengthen the Michigan Student Assembly’s relationship with the university as well as the state.
“I want to have ties with the administration that are lost-lasting, and I want to make contacts with the state legislature, so that we have strong allies,” he said.
Despite his title as student body president, Mahanti is not especially concerned with politics. He possesses a strong interest in entrepreneurship, and brings a business mindset to his role.
“I don’t see it as being a politician as much as some sort of business guy," he said. "After college I’d like to maybe work in a computer company somewhere, developing software, or I’d really like to start a company of my own, whether that’s a software company or a Web company.
"I feel like a lot of experience that I’m going to have in this upcoming year can help a lot in starting a company — working in an organization like this will really help with driving an entrepreneurial spirit and getting the wheels going, which will be very valuable.”
At the moment though, he's focused on the present. “With the Michigan Student Assembly and all the students that we have here,” he said, “I’m just excited to get together in the fall with the entire team and really rally together, and to accomplish some big, big things.”
Wilson is confident that Mahanti will accomplish a lot.
“He knows his strengths and appreciates complimentary and/or similar strengths in others, and as a result has put together a very strong leadership team,” she said. “He has the energy, enthusiasm and perseverance to make this an outstanding year for MSA and students at the University of Michigan.”