TECHNICIAN
wednesday march
13 2013
Raleigh, North Carolina
technicianonline.com
SBP electioneers start, campaign violations already Mark Herring Editor-in-Chief
Student Body President campaigns officially began Tuesday at noon, and within the first afternoon of electioneering, all three candidates violated campaign statutes, according to Student Government Elections Commissioner Victoria Melbourne. Candidate Lauren Collier, current Union Activities Board president, failed to file expense report that was due on Monday on time, according to the Elections Commission. Candidate Matthew Williams, a current student sena-
tor, used Student Government resources — a campaign button maker — without permission. O’Rear, a former football player, also filed a late expense report and fraudulently used the website source code from the 2012 campaign of current SBP Andy Walsh. Melbourne, a junior in biochemistry and political science, prides herself on taking these violations seriously. Due to slack regulation in the past, Melbourne said she and the nine others on the election commission have been keen to report any violations. “I’m serious about this,” Melbourne said. “In the past, peo-
ple got away with things they shouldn’t have.” Melbourne’s claims come with backing: The Election Commission will disqualify any candidate who accrues three campaign violations. O’Rear already has two, and elections don’t end until March 27 at noon. After weak regulation of campaigning, the Election Commission has enacted changes in Student Government statute enforcement. Melbourne said the zones where students can display campaign signs is smaller this year, after a 2012 candidate caused thousands of dollars in damages
after splitting an underground electric wire on Centennial Campus. Other violations include “dorm storming,” the act of distributing excessive amounts of campaign literature around residence halls and going door-to-door soliciting votes, and all candidates must ask permission from University Housing to campaign in residence halls. Student Government can no longer fine candidates for campaign violations, as it did in the past. “As a state school, we cannot accept their money,” Melbourne said. “It’s illegal. I’m not sure how much
money was fined in the past, but there are some students who are rallying to get their money back.” If you see any violations, you can report them to the Elections Commission at ncsuelectionscommission@gmail.com, which Melbourne highly encourages. “It’s just me and my colleagues on the commission who are really looking out, though campaigners report violations by their competitors, too,” Melbourne said. “When we get complaints, we need actual proof to adjudicate the problem.”
Getting to know the candidates
TECHNICIAN CONDUCTED A Q&A WITH THE THREE CANDIDATES. HERE’S WHERE THEY STAND LAUREN COLLIER • • • •
From Charlotte, N.C. Age: 20 Studies animal science Serves as Union Activities Board President
DWAYNE O’REAR • • • •
MATTHEW WILLIAMS • • • •
From Cary, N.C. Age: 20 Studies history Serves in the Student Senate, chair of the Traditions Commission
From Charlotte, N.C. Age: 21 Studies business Serves as a senate liaison to the Executive Branch of Student Gov.
1) Why are you running for Student Body President?
5) What are your top three goals and why?
2) What specifically inspired you to run for the position? 3) What experience do you have that you think qualifies you for the position?
6) As president, you will have to work a great deal with administration. In your opinion, what is the biggest flaw in administration?
4) What will be your greatest challenge as Student Body President?
7) What’s one fun fact about yourself?
VIEWMORE
TECHNICIANONLINE.COM Read the full, unabridged interviews of SBP candidates
1. I love helping students and I always want students to feel
1. I felt a strong urge to do something about why some
1. I’ve been in student government for the past two and a
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 I felt helped the most students on campus. That was student government. I’ve been in it ever since. 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.
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.
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. In freshman year I stayed in Owen hall. I decided to run for president for Owen Hall council. I worked on the council all year. 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. 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, and the way to make that happen is to collaborate and work together.
3. I actually started last year in the executive branch and the traditions commission while also serving as a student senator. 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 also came from being an R.A. last 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. We want to make sure 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. The universal calendar will help student organizations and arts programs because they’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. Another thing is to increase collaboration between student groups. Another thing is tuition and fee transparency as well. A lot of students see their tuition going up every year but don’t know exactly why.
6. I know they try to communicate with students. They just aren’t doing it effectively. I’ve talked to certain 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 they are thinking of students first.
7. I am in love with watches. I consider myself a mini-collector. I have 35 watches right now.
2. I was the black students board chair on UAB last year, so I was doing interviews for our scholarship I created. There were two freshmen in the college of design who mentioned an incident in the college of design where the N-word was written all over the girls’ bathroom. They were really upset about it. It was the first time I realized it was happening frequently. And it’s not being disseminated across campus and there must be something else going on.
3. Being UAB president, I’ve been super busy. I’ve had to give up a lot of things, not been able to go home, it’s a huge sacrifice. 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 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 idea 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. As student body president, you’re looked at to make sure that happens, that you represent all the students all the time. I’ve gotten hate emails from students, and I know that’s going to happen even more as student body president.
5. My top three goals are: 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 fix the academic advising structure for students and faculty. As far as leadership goes, making sure I’m visible on campus. I eat in the dining halls now. 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. 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. It’s just not understanding the students.
7. We have a dog. Her name’s Nadia Renee, she’s a Dutch shepherd. When my roommates aren’t home, Nadia and I make videos singing.
2. 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. 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.
3. I got my first job at 16. I’ve had nine different jobs. Working all those jobs and being a part of all these things growing up has really taught me how to work with 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 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 will be my union of the different student organizations next year, to properly delegate and bring those organizations together as one. 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. Number two: Make sure students’ voices are heard in administrative decisions. 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. 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. 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 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.”