Kalyani Hawaldar hopes to continue Access Party’s effort to make UF’s Student Government transparent.
“My biggests goals are to make sure that every student feels the empowerment of individuality and of their unique voice,” she said.
Hawaldar said she’s running for Student Body president to help students at UF find their voice. The 21-year-old UF biology and sociology senior was born in India, where she lived for four years before her parents came to the U.S. for work. By the time she came over, she already spoke Hindi and Marathi, a dialect of Hindi.
During her first two years, Hawaldar said she stayed away from SG because she didn’t agree with Swamp Party’s platform. It wasn’t until Access emerged in Spring 2015 that she decided to get involved, she said.
She interviewed, but she wasn’t chosen as a candidate. That semester, she volunteered with Access and helped them campaign throughout the election season.
“What really propelled me was hearing stories of students feeling like they were either underrepresented or they didn’t have the same opportunities as other people did,” Hawaldar said.
After Access won the executive ticket and took 27 out of 50 seats, Hawaldar looked to make change in SG. She was appointed executive adviser of the Diversity Affairs Committee in April 2015, in which she chaired the task force that brought gender-neutral restrooms to UF’s campus.
She said she initially spoke to Norb Dunkel, the director of housing and residence education, about getting funding from UF for the bathrooms. From the beginning, Dunkel and UF administration were on board. When the task force began the initiative, they looked to students to find support. Hawaldar and the committee received about 70 letters from students sharing personal reasons for wanting single-stalled restrooms.
“It was incredible, because that really showed me how the work that we do in Student Government isn’t a political issue but a personal issue for students,” she said.
It was the first time she realized SG could affect the lives of individual students.
Student Body President Joselin Padron-Rasines met Hawaldar before Access even existed, when Hawaldar was a Preview staffer and Padron-Rasines worked at the UF Bookstore.
She said Hawaldar would make a great Student Body president not only because of her strength, but also because of her compassion.
“In my mind, Kalyani isn’t doing it for the title. She’s really doing it for the ideals and because she cares about the Student Body,” she said, adding that Hawaldar’s ability to relate to students will help her become a good leader.
Hawaldar said she wants students’ voices to be heard, starting with voting. She said she wants to continue the transparency in SG and the experience she’s had working with different bodies of students.
“I want to be able to take my experience as an everyday Gator and use that in a way that’ll benefit every single student on campus,” she said.
Kalyani Hawaldar is a 21-year-old UF sociology and biology senior running for Student Body president with Access Party.
Hawaldar currently serves as the diversity affairs executive director in Student Government. She is a Florida Cicerone, a member of Gatorship Staff 2016 and was a part of the Preview staff in 2014. She is part of the Reitz Scholars program and was a member of a task force to create gender-neutral restrooms.
She said she hopes to continue working with UF’s administration to help students succeed.
“I’m really running to serve as a voice for the Student Body, for all students struggling and striving to be successful,” she said. “My biggest goal is to make sure that students are able to fulfill their potentials here.”
