After taking the oath of office immediately after the signing of House Bill 2 among other challenges, former Student Body President Paul Nolan, a senior studying materials science and engineering, and former Student Body Vice President Brayndon Stafford, a senior studying environmental science, faced a strenuous term in office.

Technician sat down with Nolan and Stafford to discuss their challenges and accomplishments as student body president and vice president this past year.

How do you feel your relation was with university administration this past year, particularly on issues of diversity?

“Reception at times is hit or miss,” Stafford said. “Sometimes, there were things that were said that we didn’t agree with when we dropped demands or when we called people out. Sometimes, for progress, you have to do things that not everyone agrees with to create change, and we were willing to do that.”

“The biggest difference between us and administrators is that we have the student privilege to say and do just about anything,” Nolan said. “Our administrators don’t have that kind of privilege, especially at the upper tier where you’re advocating at the General Assembly for state funding. Politics does inherently become part of the process.”

What example of your advocacy for students, with regards to diversity, do you feel was the most challenging?

“When there was the instance with the GroupMe message, statements were made around the idea that ‘we can’t expose students,’ or that the issue was a freedom of speech thing,” Stafford said. “Comments were made that made it seem that nothing could be done. That upset a lot of students, particularly students of color because there are plenty of things that you can do. Other students didn’t want the perpetrators expelled. They just wanted them to be able to learn from the situation. We’ve gotten the big snowball rolling for those coming after us. We have to be able to make sure that we are advocating for all students to make sure that they can be successful.”

With rising tuition and fees, such as the increasing engineering enhancement fee, how have you been able to advocate for students’ interests?

“I found the fee and was like, ‘Wow,’” Nolan said. “I wondered where students were involved in the making of this decision, and unfortunately this didn’t go through the traditional fee review process because the chancellor, provost and dean of engineering proposing the increases directly to the Board of Governors. By bypassing the student part of that process, they went directly to those who have the final say. A lot of my questions were then directed at Dean Martin-Vega, such as ‘why do we need this,’ ‘where is the money going,’ among others. I have been working with him and people in his office to create an FAQ website about where this money is going, so look forward to some updates there.”

You created the campaign, Pack the Polls, this past election season, among other accomplishments. How do you view your work this past election season?

“From the beginning, we were doing the most,” Nolan said. “Everything from educating students, registering students to vote, training students to register students to vote, transporting students, working with the administration to get the on-campus early voting site back and having high profile speakers were phenomenal. In the end, we had over 11,000 members from the NC State community participate, and we hope that Student Government will continue to build on that, especially in the mid-season elections.”

Some students waited between three and four hours to vote during early voting at the on-campus site. How did you react as student body officers to the long wait times?

“We went as student body officers to go and vote thinking that we would take pictures of us at the poll to encourage other students to get out and go vote,” Nolan said. “We got there and had to go back to class. We did see how long the line was and had to leave and come back, if that says anything. Take it with a grain of salt, we are happy that we were able to get an early voting site to begin with. We’ll take the progress that we got and recognize that it wasn’t enough. As for the politics, I’ll leave that for other people to debate.”

You added the Student Philanthropy Council to the body of executive offices this past year. How do you view its progress on campus?

“Sam Shain brought up a good idea,” Stafford said. “When alumni see students giving back, it empowers them to give back too, so it’s a positive cycle. You’ve seen annual Student Giving Day’s success: Even getting students to donate 50 cents or a dollar, it’s a lot if you average it out. We had some bumps and hurdles to jump over at first — there was a lot of ambiguity with what we were trying to do — but once we solidified that, we saw things roll very well.”

“I think that it was one of the most strategic moves that we made as a student government,” Nolan said. “The university’s capital campaign is a massive project and a very important one, and understanding how that links to diversity is essential. For example, we don’t have enough money for merit scholarship money to give to students to get them here. That’s because our endowment’s not big enough. It’s so interconnected, and the biggest hole was that none of the university’s efforts to encourage giving back were directed toward students.”

What advice would you give to the current student body president and vice president?

“Keep close to what you value at all times,” Stafford said. “It’s going to be hard because there will be times where things happen that pull out your values and your plans will not be as popular as what the majority of other people may think. I know that that helped Paul and I get through so much this past year.”

“Our adviser had a saying this year, that ‘it’s not about you,’” Nolan said. “That saying has been what has kept us going this whole time, that it’s not about our own ego, it’s about something larger. It depends on the situation, whether it’s community or service.”

How is life now as students in the general student body?

“Honestly, I’ve put my life on hold for the past 12 months,” Nolan said. “I’ve had to prioritize all of these projects over everything else. It’s great to have time to invest back into academics, invest in my friendships and back into so many things that I didn’t have time for or make a priority.”

“It’s weird,” Stafford said. “I’ve acclimated back to regular life, for a lack of better terms. It’s good to be in a place where I’ve let my responsibility pass on to someone else, and hopefully they will continue to make good impacts with what comes with their position. I feel like I have my life back.”