On Monday, March 4, students will have the chance to vote for their 2019-2020 Student Government representatives. This year, there are two joint tickets running for student body president and vice president.
The candidates discussed their experiences being leaders on campus, their platforms and visions for the student body in the coming year and why students should cast a ballot voting for them.
Alex Obiol, a fourth-year studying textile engineering, currently serves as the university affairs director for the executive cabinet in Student Government and is a candidate for student body president. Obiol started in Student Government as a first-year student.
Experience
This past year serving as the university affairs director has really led me into feeling like I was very much qualified for the job. Not only am I qualified for it, but I think it’s what I’m really good at and what makes me feel very much that I’ve come to myself as a person and as a leader. It’s helped me learn a lot about myself, being in this student university affairs role. It’s helped me see that my strength is in collaborating with administrators on campus and with other students in all different issues around campus and that I really am passionate about making other people’s issues part of mine, because NC State isn’t home for anybody if it’s not home for everybody. It’s really something that’s emotional for me in the sense that I feel it all the way down to my toes. I think it’s something that probably started as an insecurity, like wanting to be a part of Student Government and wanting to do a good job and now knowing that I’m ready to do that, be a part of Student Government and lead the rest of the student body.
Platform
Accessibility and visibility— I could go on for a really long time about this, since they are really broad topics, and I think that’s something that we wanted to do when we created our platform. All of the different ideas that we had kind of funneled down into these two ideas of accessibility and visibility. Accessibility, to us, means mobile accessibility on campus for students who may not be able- bodied and may not be able to get around. This also refers to financial accessibility: making sure students can not only pay for college, but stay on top of it while having a good standard of living and being able to go out with their friends and that sort of thing —making sure that every student has the college experience that you dream of and making it just a little bit easier in all the different avenues that we can to make it easier to pay for college. Where visibility ties in is that we can’t make every part of campus accessible unless we have the voices of every student, because every student has different experiences, lives and needs. For visibility, we want our Student Government to be a place where all students on campus feel like they can come and use us as a sounding board to say, “This is my problem, this is what I’ve been facing, I don’t know where to go to get this addressed, I don’t know who to talk to,” and we want to be that connecting body closing the gap between the student body and administration.
Why should a student vote for you?
I think what really sets us apart is our experience … I’ve been put in a unique position the past three years, building relationships with the administration that fixes issues. I have a lot of experience not only solving these problems, but building relationships with the people that can help me solve them and can help students in general solve these problems. I think with our campaign and our platform, we’re promising a lot of broad ideas, but I think they’re things that we very broadly want to serve in all spots on campus.
Emma Carter, third-year studying sociology and international studies, is currently a senator representing the College of Humanities and Social Sciences and is currently a candidate for student body president. Carter has formerly served in the executive cabinet and as a first-year senator.
Experience
Outside of Student Government, I’m involved in the Chancellor’s Aides program, I’m involved with Silver Wings, which is a service organization, and I’m a university ambassador. Inside Student Government, I’ve had a little experience. My first year, I was the government relations committee. My second year, I was involved with the Association of Student Governments delegate on the executive cabinet, and this year, I am a College of Humanities and Social Sciences senator, and I am running to be the next student body president because I would like to connect Student Government back to the students and bring the students back in. This year is where I’ve gained the most experience and been able to dive in as well as last year. Starting with the Association of Student Governments, I really thought this was awesome because it brings all 17 UNC System schools into one room to talk about, “These are the issues that are consistent within or across campuses.” This is really awesome, because I got to see some that are similar and some that are different. I also got to meet a bunch of different people, and they offered me perspective on, “This is what’s going on in our campus,” and then seeing what we as a UNC System can do for our students.
Platform
Our platform is based under our slogan “This is about the Pack,” giving it back to the students and making sure that we’re actively engaging them and basically all of our points: accessibility and inclusion, making sure we’re giving students a welcoming voice at the table, as well as the resources they need to improve processes or increase accessibility on campus. With collaboration, connecting with student organizations outside of just giving them funds. So, making sure that we’re either going to these student organization meetings or inviting them to the [Student Organization Roundtable] to talk and giving them a voice where we can’t to advocate for themselves. Ally: so, standing with these students. Where we see that students can better advocate for themselves, then we want to give them the resources to do that and make sure they have the doorway to be able to walk through and talk to administration about that. Then sustainability: making sure that our processes on campus are sustainable as well as our processes instituted within Student Government is sustainable beyond our year.
Why should a student vote for you?
I think that students should vote for Nicole and I because we are relatable. We are the average student. Nicole is on the track and field team, and I am just a student who got involved. I want people to know that this position is accessible and that people can do it, and they shouldn’t be scared to run for positions within their student organizations or within Student Government. They should vote for us because we’re passionate about the student body, and we’re passionate about making changes, and we actually have ideas to implement those through our points of accessibility, inclusion, collaboration, sustainability and ally.
Lexie Malico, a third-year Ph.D. student in the chemistry department, is currently a senator for Graduate and Lifelong Education. Malico is the runningmate of Obiol.
Experience
In my time at Wesleyan University, I did a lot of student leadership in terms of my sorority—I was vice president of the sorority on campus. It was amazing, and a great opportunity to become a student leader and work with an amazing group of women to accomplish goals like menstrual product drives and create a depression and anxiety support network. Later on in my Wesleyan career, I became very passionate about Title IX, so I joined the Title IX advisory committee. It focused on influencing and reviewing Title IX policy and education, providing recommendations to the administration and working in collaboration with them. I really loved being a student leader in undergrad, so in grad school, I decided to continue that as a member of the Chemistry Graduate Student Association, where I worked basically as an administrative liaison. As part of a committee, I talked to the administration about issues facing the graduate students in our department and trying to work with them to create and implement solutions that worked for everyone. In the fall, I became a graduate student and lifelong student senator where I’ve continued to work on Title IX, as well as looking at addressing women’s health issues and supporting a number of other policy changes at the NC State level.
Platform
Our platform is accessibility and visibility. We believe that an NC State education should be accessible to all students. It doesn’t matter what your gender, race, socioeconomic status or ability is. There are so many different identities that people can have, and I don’t think any of them should inhibit you from getting an NC State education. So how do we make everything more accessible to students? The other question becomes: we know that there are issues in accessibility, who are these issues affecting? They’re affecting students who are truly marginalized. How do we give those students a voice to the administration? Our platform focuses on minimizing the gap between students, Student Government and administration. We want to really push everyone together and get everyone in the same room to talk about the problem and create solutions that will make NC State a better, more welcoming and more equitable place for everyone.
Why should students vote for you?
I think both tickets are highly qualified. I think that Alex and I bring together a bevy of experiences that are constructive in terms of making sure that we balance each other well. Alex has substantial experience in Student Government at NC State, and I have substantial experience being an advocate at the student level. Building on these two things, I really think that we can get things done. We have the experience, we know the administration, and we have a real record of being advocates and allies for students no matter what. We have tried to make sure that NC State is accessible, diverse and welcoming and I think our records in Student Government and beyond go to show that.
Nicole Teague, a third-year studying business administration, is currently a senator representing the Poole College of Management. Teague is the running mate of Carter.
Experience
I’m currently serving as a Poole College of Management senator. Within the Senate, I am the historian, vice chair of the finance committee and a member of the council of athletics. Prior to serving in the 98th session, I served in the 97th session as a member of the philanthropy and service department within the executive branch. By serving in the executive and legislative branch, I believe that I’ve been able to see both sides of Student Government and although I wasn’t heavily involved in the executive branch, I feel like I have made connections, learned and grown overall and learned how to lead and serve all students.
Platform
The Carter-Teague platform has five main points – accessibility, inclusion, collaboration, ally and sustainability. What we plan to do is to serve as student leaders and give back to the community. We feel like we want to give Student Government back to the students as it is a resource created by students for students. We want our term in office to serve all students here on campus by including them, being accessible, giving the resources that student government has available and being transparent through the things that we do.
Why should students vote for you?
I’m running for student body vice president to serve for all students and to be a voice for the voiceless. Student Government is here for students and we feel that our platform incorporates the whole student. We care about all students on a student level of course, but as people first. We are all human beings and we feel like we can holistically take into account what students want and do everything that’s in our power. The care and genuineness that we have within both of us is going to show. We know that we are going to work hard for students and we’re going to make sure that all students are cared for and know that they are cared for through Student Government.
