SG Elects a Graduate Senator

Hrushikesh Sagar was recently elected as the new Student Government (SG) representative for the graduate student population, and is the first international student to hold the position.

“I am from Pune, India. I completed my undergrad there in the College of Engineering Pune,” Sagar said, expressing pride in his home. “College of Engineering Pune is one of the best colleges in India; it is a top-ten college in India.” After graduating in 2010, he worked in the field for the company Valeo, an auto component company, for three and a half years as a planning manager and eventually Head of Planning.

Sagar is now a first-year graduate student in Manufacturing & Mechanical System Integration, a program within the College of Applied Science and Technology. One of the reasons that Sagar came to RIT was for the Institute’s interest in sustainability; he was involved in two sustainability projects at Pune: Mula-Mutha, a river cleaning project and Sagar-Mitra, a project for plastic recycling. Continuing this work at RIT is one of Sagar’s goals. He also wants to bring his work experience to projects for Imagine RIT.

He has big plans for the Graduate Senator position. “If you can see, in RIT there is a big problem, which is that the graduate students are not involved in groups” Sagar explained. “There is also no link between SG and graduate students because graduate students are in a different world than the undergraduate students, so my major [goal] is to connect them.”

He continued by saying that the RIT student population is made up of four communities: the undergraduates, the graduates, NTID students and the commuters. Sagar would like to connect these four groups and promote better communication. “I want to involve all of the groups,” he said. “They are all a part of this RIT family.”

He explained that he looks forward to working with the students of RIT. “I only need to say one thing to all of the graduate students: Guys, my doors are always open for you; you can contact me at any time. I will reply to you within a few hours, and I need hear from you.”

Sagar can be reached during his office hours in the SG office on Tuesdays from 11 a.m. – 1 p.m., and Thursdays from 12-2 p.m.  He said he can also be reached by email, sggrad@rit.edu, or on his cellphone which is 585-764-5498.