Q: How does it feel to be elected Community Senate President?
A: Pretty cool. I didn’t think it would be that big of a deal. I thought generally the people who go to Senate would be the ones who knew, but a lot of people on campus the day after said to me, “Congratulations,” and these were people I hadn’t talked to in a while. So it’s helped me realize the position is something people know about. The majority of the student body at least knows about it.
I got to sit in on a meeting with Kent and a bunch of the other administrators and teachers at the school and get to see processes of the school that I wouldn’t normally get to see. I’m immediately going from meeting to meeting. I get to sit in on budget hearings and see clubs, and there are clubs I hadn’t gotten the chance to know about. It’s cool to see what people are passionate about.
Q: What do you think should be Community Senate’s focus?
A: I’m not entirely sure what the focus should be right now. I’m just trying to pick up what the technical skills are, what I’ll need to do, what my weekly routine is going to be, and meeting with people. I feel like, when I came in, my goal was to help other people enact what their goals were. I just wanted to continue the transition Senate’s been doing with streamlining things, getting that process down so that new executives can step in and go right into it.
I think one of the big things is a scholarship for undocumented students — I think that’s a really cool direction for us to push in, and we approved an initiative to move towards creating a scholarship in principle last week at Senate.
The one goal I do have is to improve lots of small things on campus. Like, there’s a bike rack by the old apartments that’s down by the laundry room at the bottom of the hill, and no one uses it. We should move it to another site. And at the new apartments, there’s a curb where there should really be a ramp you can bike up. Just really small things like that I think will help optimize Guilford.
Q: How long have you been in student government? Why did you join?
A: I’ve been going to Senate since my first year. This is my first time in a position at Guilford.
I wanted to apply for it because I realized while working as president for ultimate frisbee that I really like logistical work. I like sending emails. I like chasing down administrators. I like going from meeting to meeting. It’s not very draining work for me. I feel like it is for a lot of other people, but for me, sometimes it’s really energizing.
I also heard the position was uncontested. I’m not a really big political campaigner. I don’t like competing against other people in the political sense, so usually I don’t get the opportunity to run for these positions and do this kind of work. I felt like that was a vacancy, and I felt like my skill set was tailored. I just wasn’t prepared to, like — I’m just not a good campaigner for myself. That’s work I’m pretty averse to.
Q: You also play Ultimate Frisbee, help administrate the team and do layout for The Guilfordian. Do you plan on continuing work with these clubs?
A: I think I’ll have to scale it back.
I took a lot of AP classes in high school, so I’ve always been ahead of the curve in terms of credits. I’ve always been able to take three classes per semester instead of the usual four, and that’s made my workload pretty easy. But that’s what I’m doing this semester, and it still feels really busy.
I’m stepping away from president of Frisbee. I think I’m still going to try to practice and play when I can. I feel like we’ve done a good job of preparing. We’re already trying to groom people who are excited about stepping into bigger roles so there won’t be a lot of turnover. I feel like Frisbee is in good hands.
But The Guilfordian is something I still want to be involved with.
I talked with my financial advisor, and I can actually go to school part time, which saves me $6,000. I’m not sure which semester I’m going to do that, but I think I’ll do that in the spring when I’m doing my thesis. But again, the thesis is another huge time commitment.
But I feel like I’m pretty much done with my major. I don’t have a lot of other requirements or other classes, so my schedule is pretty free. I’m prepared to donate most of my time to being president.
Q: Do you have any other hobbies?
A: I’ve been trying to pick up hobbies. I always try one and stick with it for a while and then kind of lose it. My latest one has been playing around with Illustrator and Photoshop and those kinds of things.
I decided I want to start reading for pleasure again. Just read for the pursuit of knowledge. I want to read more philosophical texts.
It transitions from one to the other. I’ll get really caught on something for a little while. For a while, I was into hacky sack. I just kind of cycle through until I find what I love.
I’ve been trying to find a hobby that lets me express myself, but I’m not really sure what that is. I feel like other people have arts that they can share, like how you play guitar. People can do things other people will appreciate, and my hobbies are generally less visible.
Q: What’s your guiltiest pleasure?
A: My guiltiest pleasure? That’s a good one…I really like really sappy, really shitty action movies. I like imagining someone taking them seriously, because I can’t. I see so many plot holes and bad acting that it’s really easy to get lost in it. I sometimes just like to veg out on really shitty movies.
Q: What’s your favorite color, and why?
A: Yellow. Most yellows are awful, but there’s occasionally a really good yellow that I like. If you get the right yellow, that’s always going to win for me.
Also, nowadays it’s the trendy thing to say everything goes with purple, but I’ve always liked purple.
Q: What is your contingency plan for the zombie apocalypse?
A: I know that the biggest danger in a zombie apocalypse is everyone doing the same thing. You know, everyone going to Wal-Mart and stocking up on everything. My goal is to go one step ahead, and I’m going to go to gun stores and grab all of the self-defense weapons I can get.
Then, going to a place where it would make the zombies waste away… Well, obviously it depends on what kind of zombies, but assuming they’re ones that can’t survive forever like “The Walking Dead” ones, just going to a place where the actual act of a zombie traveling that far would kill them off. I dream of having a completely self-sufficient cabin in the mountains.
As an atheist, very religious events like that happening seem totally unfathomable to me, but for some reason I believe that a zombie apocalypse is quite possible.
Q: How does it feel to have the best roommate of all time (Editor-in-Chief Rebecca Gibian)?
A: Pretty great. It’s really nice when I come home and I’ve had a shitty day. She has two beds, and we can just snuggle and talk about our days. I call her the perfect human being all the time. We’ve agreed to live with each other for the rest of our lives. So it’s pretty great. You can’t go wrong with The Gibian.
Q: Do you have any other comments you’d like to add?
A: I know that I’ll make a lot of mistakes. But one of my qualities is my ability to respond to constructive criticism. I don’t get offended. I might be disappointed in myself that I’ve made a mistake. Not wearing a shirt to the Senate debates was definitely a huge mistake and something I was pretty defensive over, but it didn’t take me very long to say, “Okay, that was one of my more regrettable decisions.”
I think and I know that over the course of Senate there’s going to be lots of hard decisions, and I can’t always choose the right one, no matter how much I go for community feedback. I will make decisions that are unpopular. But just know that I’m pretty receptive. If you see me, you can stop me and chat with me or shoot me an email.
I’m going to do my best to be adaptable. The reason I took the position was to help enact what the student body wants, and sometimes I’ll get it wrong, but you can call me out on it.
