All three candidates debate for the first time

Student body president candidate Bradley Opere gathered the remaining petition signatures he needed to join candidates Wilson Sink and John Taylor in “The Great South Campus Debate” Wednesday night.

Issues facing people of color came up in the debate, which was sponsored by the Black Student Movement, the Carolina Hispanic Association and the Residence Hall Association.

“I can’t pretend to have the experiences that marginalized people have had on this campus,” Taylor said, but he wants to amplify others’ voices as president.

Sink said he wants to make Black and Blue Tours mandatory at orientation. He also discussed his experience registering students to vote and said he wants to extend voter registration to every student.

“We need to empower the minority community, and that’s something we can do through voting,” Sink said.

Opere wants every UNC student to go through racial equity training, and he wants to increase minority participation in student government.

“We need to be able to look and see how many minority students actually work for student government,” he said.

Safe spaces

Sink wants to expand the LGBTQ Center to North Campus and push for more gender-neutral bathrooms and better accessibility.

“No one should have to use a spreadsheet to go to the bathroom,” he said.

Taylor said he and many other students at UNC can tend to feel lonely.

“I’m going to make sure everybody has a place they can go home to at the end of the day. That’s what I’m going to work for,” he said.

Opere said he wants official spaces where students can feel safe and express their opinions. He applauded the opening of Pride Place as a step in the right direction.

“There are informal spaces to interact,” Opere said. “We need to find spaces where we feel like we can celebrate and be part of this campus.”

Housing and CAPS

Opere said it will take a long time to fix the recent drop in students living on campus but said student input is an important step.

He wants to restructure residence halls and partner with RHA to work against sexual assault by training roommates at the beginning of the year.

Taylor said he wants to encourage students to stay on campus by increasing counseling resources, as well as encourage community within on-campus housing.

“These are the people who are going to stand with you no matter what you’re dealing with,” he said.

Sink also wants to increase resources for Counseling and Psychological Services. He said he wants to bring private counselors to campus for students who have used up their free counseling sessions.

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