“You (guys) took all the good bread!” Senate Vice President-elect Laura Wigand was only half-joking when she bemoaned the absence of dinner rolls. I stayed quiet, mostly because I had a mouthful of the last roll.
A few weeks earlier, Wigand and I had been competing for the Senate vice president position, her on the Karim ticket, me on the Unger ticket. Now we were eating dinner together.
The meal wasn’t a congratulatory gesture from me, or a consolatory gesture from her. It resulted from an invitation from incumbent Senate President Floyd McKissick, who sent an e-mail to every ticket who ran for Senate or Union. Meet for dinner at the Revival Grill on April 5. Senate would pick up the tab, but everyone was encouraged to discuss “the elections process; what worked, and what didn’t?”
And so I found myself eating, drinking and joking with next year’s Senate officers: President Abdul-Qawiy “AQ” Abdul-Karim, Vice President Laura Wigand and Secretary Alexandria Stewart. Treasurer Christoper Lett is spending the semester in Ghana. All officers are currently sophomores, except Karim, a junior. Every one of them shares an open personality, a passion to improve the college, and a genuine sense of humor.
At one point, Stewart noticed my transcribing of her musings, leveled a fork at me and smiled sweetly. “I feel like I need to approve this article before it runs.”
Wigand chimed in, smiling even more. “I think my first order of business will be to cut the budget of that pesky Guilfordian.”
The banter went on, filling the long delay between the order of a meal and its delivery with good-natured jibes at each other and about their upcoming responsibilities as leaders of Senate. Stewart laughed about “rolling out the iron-fist” of Margaret Thatcher, while Wigand managed to lay out her plans to seize control of Senate with a straight face.
“A.Q.’s a good guy,” she said. “Let’s stage a coup. It’s nothing personal against him. It’s just a power thing.” As she spoke, Karim subtly took cover behind his chair.
When the serious issues arose, the officers displayed ability and willingness to hold a coherent, well-informed conversation about the issues facing the college – without losing their humor.
Stewart gave an overview of her ticket’s platform.
“The most important thing is getting people involved, and letting them know where to go to, and how to network,” she said. “What we want is to create a government and administration that is clear, transparent, and accessible.”
Nodding, Karim agreed.
“I really liked Ali’s quote,” he acknowledged, before adding his own vision for next year. “I want to focus on Campus Life. Most people don’t understand how much Campus Life entails: basically anything that involves students and isn’t academics, falls under Campus Life … It’s important to make Campus Life work for the students.”
Wigand plans to rework Senate itself.
“Senate needs to do more than just approve budgets and hear proposals,” she said. “They need to take a stand on issues … like working with the administration. But a lot of it is limited to what issues are important to the students.”
Stewart stressed the importance of the student body’s involvement as a constant priority for the Senate. “There’s a lot of planning going on over the next year or so that will determine how Guilford is run for the next 15-20 years. This is our chance to make sure our voices are heard.”
As our food arrived, I turned to current secretary Laura Meyerchin for her opinion on next year’s Senate lineup, hoping to get one last quote before I traded my pen and notebook for a fork and knife. Her response was concise and optimistic. “I think they’ll do a wonderful job.