Student body president nominees were asked seven questions. Here are their responses.

1) Why are you running for Student Body President?

2) What specifically inspired you to run for the position? 

3) What experience do you have that you think qualifies you for the position?

4) What will be your greatest challenge as Student Body President?

5) What are your top three goals and why? 

6) As president, you will have to work a great deal with administration. In your opinion, what is the biggest flaw in administration? 

7) What’s one fun fact about yourself?

Lauren Collier:

From: Charlotte, North Carolina

Age: 20

Year/Study: Junior in Animal Science, Criminology, and Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management

Current Position: Union Activities Board President

1. “I understand and recognize that not every student will graduate with the same Wolfpack pride that some of us may have, so I felt a strong urge to do something about why some students weren’t happy on campus, why there was a disconnect for some students and just to explore what was really going on, either from a structural standpoint or just the social experience, the campus climate.”
2. “I was the black students board chair on UAB last year and I was planning Pan-Afrikan week, the 42nd annual one, so I was doing interviews for our scholarship that I created and I was asking students basic questions, just the same standard questions. There were two freshmen in the college of design who mentioned that there was an incident in the college of design where the n-word was written all over the girls’ bathroom. It was the first time I had heard about it, the first time anyone on the panel had heard about it. They were really upset about it. That kind of opened my eyes because I had heard a lot about those kind of things happening but it was the first time that I was like, ‘Wow, this is really happening frequently,’ and it’s not being disseminated across campus and there must be something else going on.”
3. “I’ve been president of a few organizations on campus, but a lot of students have, so I recognize that’s something that’s not something that stands out completely. But I think the major thing is my experience with UAB. I had to run last year in student body elections and campaign to be president and was elected, and I had an extravagant platform, I was going to do all these things. Even being UAB president, I’ve been super busy. I’ve had to give up a lot of things, not been able to go home and see my family, it’s just a huge sacrifice. I think this position has made me more aware of things happening on campus. It’s helped me interact more with students, faculty, administration, the chancellor. [I’ve] had to deal with controversial situations with our dirty bingo and all that. I’ve been under the heat lamp. It makes me mentally, physically, emotionally prepared for the position of student body president.”
4. “My biggest challenge is going to be really diving deeper into this thing that you can’t please everybody. It’s something I struggled with this year with UAB because I wanted to be able to make everyone happy, I wanted to be sure our programs made everyone happy. From selecting artists for our concert, you’re just not going to be able to please everyone. As student body president, you’re looked at to make sure that happens, that you represent all the students all the time. I know that’s not possible but I think it’ll be a challenge for me mentally just to see that happen. I’ve gotten hate emails from students like, ‘I can’t believe you’re doing this, spending my money on this,’ and I know that’s going to happen even more as student body president.”
5. “My top three goals are in line with my platform, obviously. But social, leadership and academic. As far as those three go, it’s really combining campus. I’m involved in three colleges with my studies and I know the colleges are very disconnected, so I have a plan to connect the colleges –assuming that it’s feasible. And then the academic advising structure. Dr. Mullen has mentioned wanting to fix the structure to make it better for students and for the faculty. As far as leadership goes, social and leadership, making sure I’m visible on campus. I like to think I’m very visible now. Even if it’s in a very controversial light, that’s just part of being UAB president. I eat in the dining halls now and try to support campus enterprises. I’m always on campus even though I live off campus. I’m here all day every day even on the weekends and during breaks.”
6. “I don’t think they understand the student experience from a variety of students. I think that until you have possessed multiple identities, you’ve lived in different students’ experiences, it’s hard to implement programs for them and then wonder why it doesn’t work, especially with the ClassEvals. There’s been discussion as to why it doesn’t work and what can we do. We need to shorten the questions. Well, sometimes students just don’t do it other than for an incentive other than to get a grade. That’s not right. Professors are giving out grades to get good responses, it’s just not understanding the students. A lot of [administration] went here at a completely different time or didn’t go here and came from outside places, and yes they say, ‘I’ve been here 10, 15 or 20 years,’ but times have changed. Every day is different for every student.”
7. “There’s so many, just one? I’m a little guilty of doing this: We have a dog that looks like a wolf. Her name’s Nadia Renee, she’s a Dutch shepherd. When my roommates aren’t home, me and Nadia make videos singing. I’m in the shower and she’s outside of the shower, and we make videos singing. We make Beyonce videos together.”

Matthew Williams:

From: Cary, North Carolina

Age: 20

Year/Study: Junior in History

Current Position: Chair of traditions commission

1. “I’m running mainly because, well, number one, I love N.C. State. But even more than that I love helping students and I always want students to feel like their voices have been heard. I’m a transfer student, so even when I came here sophomore year, I wanted to join the organization that I felt helped the most students on campus. That was student government. I’ve been in it ever since. This is my second year. I went from student senator to [my current position]. I was helping students. Even once I graduate I want to go get my master’s in higher education so I can come back to a college campus and be an advisor. I just love helping people. I just want students to feel their voices have been heard at the end of the day, that they’ve been attended to in a timely and proper way, that they’ve had time to react and that they’ve been informed of everything going on.”
2. “Packapalooza really inspired my platform for collaboration. It’s always been about better communication between administration and students and between student groups. But after working with Packapalooza last year, I really got a sense of what could happen when multiple student groups and departments on campus get together and work together. We can make huge events. Students want big events, the way to make that happen is to collaborate and work together.”
3. “I was student body president in high school. I’ve been in student government all my life, except when I was at A&T, which is where I transferred from. Since being here I’ve been a passionate member of student government. I actually started last year in the executive branch and the traditions commission while also serving as a student senator, first year at large senator. That really helped me learn the organization. I learned both branches there, which is really important because both branches have to collaborate. That’s really prepared me for the student government side. The leadership side came from student government but it also came from being an RA last year. I had the privilege of being an RA in Carroll and Bowen halls throughout the year. Working with different personalities, working with different students gave me an opportunity to grow as a leader and gave me a chance to help people.”
4. “My greatest challenge will be what my greatest goal is: to build up communication between administrators and students and between student groups. One of my main things is a universal website and right now it’d be a little easier than it has in the past because they’ve already started to turn the current students page on the website into that place for students. But it’s not really updated, it’s not used like it should be. My goal is to have that every student’s homepage. I want students to be able to get daily updates. If something goes on like the Cameron Village incident that happened, everyone went through the proper precautions and the administration to make sure it wasn’t a threat. Things like that would be a post. We want to make sure that students know at all times they can turn to Current Students. We want to make sure that if you have access to the Internet, you can log on and know what’s going on.”
5. “My top three goals are the universal calendar and the universal website, and those go hand-in-hand, and that’s all in building up Current Students because we want to make sure students always know where they can go to be informed. The universal calendar will help student organizations, it’ll help club sports, it’ll help arts programs and things like that because it’ll all be on one calendar. My plan is to make it like a Google calendar where you can take some links off, say if you aren’t so much interested in arts or athletics. But say you’re bored in your room one day, you can go onto the universal calendar and see, ‘Hey, they’re doing this today let me go check that out.’ Another thing is to increase collaboration between student groups. Every year budget gets tighter, tuition’s increasing. We got to make sure our student groups are working together, that’s how we can have those big events for students. Another thing is tuition and fee transparency as well. I actually wrote a paper on it last year because I don’t know enough about it. A lot of students see their tuition going up every year but don’t know exactly why. We’ve tried over the year, even Andy’s tried this year, but I think what I’d do differently is to do some tradition tweets on Current Students, do some features on the administrators who are leading the charge and the committee meetings, so we can get to know the person making these decisions. Also, I want to something called ‘Wolfpack react forms,’ where students talk directly to those making the decisions. So students would be there with the people making decisions and would be able to get direct feedback from these individuals. I mean, emails are nice, but it’s always good to be able to ask your question directly to a person. It’s all about building that communication and that trust.”
6. “I think it’s just, I know they try to communicate with students. They just aren’t doing it effectively. I’ve talked to certain administrators and I’m actually the university special events intern, so I work in Holladay Hall and get to develop special relationships with some administrators. They reach out to certain things and send out emails and do certain posts, but it’s not getting directly to the students. Students need to know [administrators] are thinking of students first.”
7. “I am in love with watches. I consider myself a mini-collector. I have 35 watches right now, and my family loves feeding my habit. I love watches, that’s my thing.”

Dwayne O’Rear:

From: Charlotte, North Carolina

Age: 21

Year/Study: Junior in business administration with a concentration in finance

Current Position: Senate liaison to the executive branch for student government

1. “I’m running because I absolutely love N.C. State. I’ve been in student government for the past two and a half years working for the past student presidents, Chandler Thompson and Andy Walsh. I served on Chandler Thompson’s presidential cabinet and really loved it. Then Andy Walsh approached me and said I could serve on his if I want, and I said, ‘Yes.’ He appointed me to the same position and I’ve been serving in it ever since. Freshman year, Sam really was the ignition. I came into N.C. State, didn’t even think I’d be here. I fell in love with it. I stayed in Owen hall. Within two weeks the RD came in and told us that she needed an Owen Hall council. I decided to run for president for Owen Hall council. I went door to door and was voted president then. I worked on the council all year. We had a budget of about $3500. We basically planned events like Battle of the Beach, Tucker versus Owen, Slip ‘n’ Slide, cookouts, things like that. I got to thinking, ‘Hey, if I can do this in Owen and I can bring Owen together, why not try to take the next step up?’ … I would like to see things change for the better next year.”
2. “I would say seeing student government from the outside and seeing how well it was operated when I was a freshman really motivated me to get onto Chandler Thompson’s council, and that was the start. Once I got on her campaign and then her council, I saw she was doing a great job. It started clicking in my head that there’s no reason I can’t be her one day. But I need to work hard because it’s easier said than done. Watching her work and delegate between different groups on campus really sparked an interest in me because it’s about the team, not the individual. Sophomore year I was also on the football team. I walked on August of 2011. I was one of five out of thirty walk-on tryouts. I played for Tom O’Brien. I took three reps, three snaps. I went to the Belk Bowl in Charlotte, North Carolina when we beat Louisville, and it was really special. The entire time I was on the football team I was balancing class and student government. It was awesome, I love doing everything and being involved. I would say my love for being involved with students and making students the best they can be is the best thing.”
3. “I got my first job at 16 years of age. I’ve found nine different jobs. I’ve had jobs ranging from Kentucky Fried Chicken to Dick’s Sporting Goods, where I’m currently working…. Working all those different jobs and being a part of all these different things growing up has really taught me how to work with people and be receptive to people and how to really embrace diversity. Coming to N.C. State, seeing everybody I see, we’re all different, and we all come together as one. I’ve seen it happen on the football team and I really believe we, as N.C. State can come together as one if we work at it. One pack, one goal.”
4. “My greatest challenge would be my union of the different student organizations next year. We are currently seeking a person to fill the director of student involvement position. From my understanding, student government, CSLEPS and all the other organizations on campus, not all are on UAB, IRC. My biggest challenge will be to properly delegate and bring those organizations together as one. From the outside looking in and from the inside looking out, I’ve learned that N.C. State has a lot of great organizations, but we don’t work together like we could.”
5. “Number one: I want to fight to lower tuition and stop fee increases. Tuition has gone up for the past four or five years and I know it’s going up another 6,000 next year. The problem is that every year the University would like to see new things done on campus, and that costs money. We just don’t have that much money. So they raise the tuition on students to help pay for that. By ‘stop,’ I mean to limit fee increases on students. If I could get the e-bill to be more transparent to see where money is going, I could effectively help students kind of say and let the administrators know where they’d like to see their money go. Number two: Make sure students’ voices are heard in administrative decisions. As student body president I will be board of trustee member and I could bring to attention to the board some of students’ thoughts and what they’d like to see done. I don’t think that’s been done enough, it hasn’t been done well in the past. Number three: to integrate Hillsborough Street with N.C. State. My friend who goes to ECU called me last week and told me he took his meal plan card and went to Chili’s downtown for lunch. He said he used his meal plan for three different meals there. If ECU can do it, we can do it here. I understand it’s been talked about for three or four years but it’s never really been pursued by anyone. In my opinion, if I could start here and get there, I would do it.”
6. “This goes back to my number two point. Campus administration does not take into account enough of what students think. We as students are the mouth of N.C. State. We are the wolves in the pack. Now, the administrators lead the pack, but they need to listen to the wolves in the pack. We can give advice and our opinion matters. But my biggest criticism is that the administrators and board of trustees don’t take students’ opinions and thoughts into account as much when making administrative decisions.”
7. “I eat my Oreos with peanut butter.”