Delegates representing the Association of Student Governments, the representative body of all UNC-system schools, voted to elect Student Body President Alex Parker as President for the 2014-2015 school year. 

Parker’s running mate, Leigh Whittaker, who will serve as vice president, currently serves as student body president at UNC-Asheville. 

Parker said he will formally take office at the next ASG meeting which will take place from April 4-5 at Western Carolina University.

Parker and Whittaker ran unopposed and were elected by delegates from each constituent member of the UNC-System.

As ASG president, Parker will be a nonvoting member of the UNC-System Board of Governors. 

Along with creating a culture of transparency, Parker said he and his vice-president elect will address the reputation of ASG and promote professionalism and effective advocacy for all 220,000 students in the UNC-System.

“Like many student governments, we [ASG] don’t have inherent power,” Parker said. “Our influence is the only means of power that we have. For the past couple of years, we’ve been shorting ourselves. Our goal is to rebuild that reputation.”

Parker said N.C. State delegates to ASG have been critical of the organization in the past, and its students have played a significant role in terms of reforms.

“We’ve [N.C. State] been a vocal critic, and that’s important because an N.C. State student founded the organization,” Parker said. “For the last few years, we’ve been talking about how it’s ineffective and how we can make changes to it. Last year, Andy Walsh presented some reforms that really would have helped the organization, but he didn’t go to many meetings and so he didn’t really have much credibility.”

Parker said since he was elected student body president at N.C. State, he and members of his administration have been sure to be present at every single ASG meeting to make sure that they were effective representatives of the school. 

Since both elected representatives were student body presidents this year, Parker said he and Whittaker will be prime candidates to help student leaders of all UNC schools with their vision for their schools and give them access to resources and advice.

 “Even if you go to the meetings, it’s really hard to understand some things,” Parker said. “For example, tuition and fees are set by the Board of Governors. If you can understand what they’re thinking, you can guide the process with your constituents.”

As ASG president, Parker said he hopes to bring many of the practices at N.C. State to other UNC-System institutions. 

“I think the administration here is ahead of a lot of other campuses in the system with regards to efficiency,” Parker said. “So I really hope to bring what we’ve been doing at N.C. State to other campuses. We want to make sure the system is operating under as much efficiency as possible.”