The Daily Tar Heel: Why are you running for Mr. UNC?
Osaru Onaiwu: Running for Mr. UNC was something I think I’ve had in my mind since my first year. And everyone who has won in the past years is somebody that I’ve known and had a good relation with and I’ve just been inspired by their involvement on campus. So I guess throughout my four years, I’ve loved to also carry out those same kind of visions. So running for Mr. UNC, I’ve been really involved in service so I wanna carry out that spirit of service and in my project as well.
DTH: What is your service project plan?
OO: My service project, called Building Bonds through Service, I plan to have a monthly service project to help facilitate relations between the police department and the UNC community. I feel like this is like a very important issue, especially concerning the stress that has been growing among the community towards and probably vice versa and even considering, like, the larger aspect of police brutality in the country as well.
DTH: Is there anything else you’d like to add?
OO: I feel like every candidate that’s running for Mr. UNC are very qualified … I feel like everyone is having a great platform to bring and so I feel like it’d be great to be Mr. UNC to spread the spirit of service.
Seth Bumgarner
Bumgarner is a history and peace, war and defense major from Wilkesboro.
The Daily Tar Heel: Why are you running?
Seth Bumgarner: It kind of started more like a joke. I made some friends, we would always study in Davis together and it was like 2 a.m. late night deliriums and one night one of them was like, ‘Seth, you should really run for Mr. UNC.’ I’m like, ‘Thanks, we’ll come back to that.’ And then I went through Carolina not really thinking about it and coming into this year I had the mindset of trying to make the most of my experience while I was here.
DTH: If you win, what do you plan to do as your service project?
SB: My Self-care Card is this program I wanna launch through New Student Orientation, DHRE and other student wellness programs on campus, and basically students will get a postcard that says ‘My self-care can be’ and it’ll have a blank where they can fill it in and they sign it. So, for example, let’s say a student wants to go bowling for their self-care, that can be totally independent of seeing their friends or anything because self-care really relies on the individual.
DTH: Any lasting comments you want to leave me with?
SB: I would say that if any student takes something away from this experience or sees us in the Pit, I think any candidate would just want a student to make the most of their time at UNC.
Logan Gin
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Gin is a biology and political science major from Columbus, Ohio.
The Daily Tar Heel: Why are you running for Mr. UNC?
LG: Overall just to bring awareness to issues of disability and accessibility on campus. I started this work four years ago when I got here. It is a good way for me to exit Carolina and leave a Heel print.
DTH: What is your service project plan?
LG: The hope is to bring adaptive sports to Carolina, starting with wheelchair basketball. The goal of it would be to establish a program within Campus Rec as an option for students with disabilities and students without disabilities to compete, which would be within the already established intramural sports program, and students would be able to sign up and compete against each other and play. The hope from there would be to expand that into other sports.
DTH: What has the process for running been like?
LG: It has been a little bit stressful. I think with all of the senior-year related things along with the campaign have been tough — balancing classes with what I am doing next year, working, etc. The plan is grad school, so I am applying for grad school right now. We have been balancing this for four years now, but it has been a breath of fresh air to get involved in this and take a step back and think about what this means for the Carolina community and being able to embrace what this means for senior year.