Lambden hits the ground running

After winning the student body president election Tuesday night, Christy Lambden said he feels like he’s on cloud nine.

“I still feel like I’m in a dream,” he said.

But before he takes office on April 2nd, Lambden said he has a lot to familiarize himself with.

“One of the big things is, how can I get experience before I take office?” he said.

He said he hopes to foster cooperation between his administration and University leaders, as well as with Student Congress.

Lambden became UNC’s student body president-elect after coming from a second-place finish in the general election and beating junior Will Lindsey in the runoff.

“It feels great to work hard for something and see it succeed,” said senior Joanna Steele, Lambden’s public relations manager.

Lambden said he’ll spend his time in the coming months working with the current executive board to make the transition from Student Body President Will Leimenstoll to himself as seamless as possible.

Leimenstoll said he can relate to Lambden’s anticipation.

“I was super excited to get started after I was elected,” he said. “I definitely wanted to hit the ground running.”

But Leimenstoll said he didn’t realize the amount of ground work that had to be done before taking office.

“(Former Student Body President) Mary (Cooper) really made the transition easy, and I really want to do that as well,” he said. “We want to set Christy up for success.”

Steele said the incoming administration hopes to work with the new chancellor to address challenges including the University’s sexual assault policy and tuition increases.

“We want to make sure we’re using our resources to reach out to the campus and have people in place to deal with our plans,” she said.

Lambden said he hopes his experience in Student Congress will help him build relations between the executive and legislative branches.

Last semester, Leimenstoll and Student Congress clashed over whether to eliminate the student body vice president’s stipend. Leimenstoll vetoed a bill that would have eliminated the stipend, and Congress failed to override his veto.

“The student government has the greatest power when we are all together and working on the same page,” he said. “We need to work together.”

Lambden said he will spend his time before April learning more about the relationship between the students, UNC and the state government.

“I want to make Carolina first in every aspect,” he said. “That’s something we really need to work on going into next year.”

Contact the desk editor at university@dailytarheel.com.