Claybren would bring activism experience to SBP

Kevin Claybren pins a red felt patch to his jacket every day to symbolize the ability of students to affect change.

Claybren, who is running for student body president, said he has been an activist since the first moment he arrived at UNC.

“My first year at Carolina, I was a volunteer for the LGBTQ Center and that’s when I really started seeing the inequality and injustice on this campus,” he said.

The junior is a women’s and gender studies major and hopes to eventually become a law school professor.

Claybren gained notoriety last year for spearheading the successful gender-neutral housing campaign.

When he was advocating for the option, he said he noticed people really started rallying around the idea after Mary Cooper, then the student body president, wrote the first letter of support that he received.

“It showed that the student body has the power to really engage the community,” he said.

He has worked with student government but said he has never actually worked within student government.

“I bring a sense of critical thinking and also a different way of looking at student government — a new face, a new perspective,” Claybren said.

Matt Hickson, Claybren’s campaign volunteer coordinator, said the campaign is unique because it is based on a platform of “student power.”

“Most students don’t feel a lot of times that they’re engaged in student government,” he said. “This campaign was designed to reverse that.”

Claybren said his unique experiences put him in position to be student body president.

“I’ve worked with students, staff and administration around gender non-specific housing options,” he said.

Claybren served on the Provost’s Committee on LGBTQ Life, and he said he knows how to navigate and work with administrators, staff and faculty to make things happen.

“It gives me the opportunity to still really be student-focused and centered but have the ability and knowledge to work effectively with faculty, administration and staff,” Claybren said.

Terri Phoenix, director of the LGBTQ Center, said Claybren was a standout with his devoted efforts to gender-neutral housing.

“Kevin is awesome at coalition building on campus and across the state of North Carolina,” Phoenix said. “He did a phenomenal job at cultivating relationships with a lot of different groups of people, and I think that that was instrumental in the success of the gender-neutral housing campaign.”

Claybren said he wants to be the microphone for students whose voices aren’t being heard on campus.

But he said even though he is standing up for the students whose issues are less talked about, he is not just targeting these specific groups.

“He is committed to engaging in social justice work from an intersectional identities and coalition-building framework,” Phoenix said.

His mother, Monique Claybren, said that as an activist, when Claybren sees something wrong, he speaks up.

“I’m very proud of him, not just for running for student body president, but for all of the accomplishments that he has made,” Monique Claybren said.

“I’m the proudest mother on Earth.”

Contact the desk editor at university@dailytarheel.com.