Last month, the Campus Y elected its first Black female co-presidents: junior Montia Daniels and sophomore Patrice McGloin. The Campus Y, a social justice-centered organization, is one of the largest student organizations at UNC.
This historic win for Daniels and McGloin is an exciting and powerful change. They have titled their platform “Our voices will not be silenced,” and they plan to emphasize racial equity in their work this upcoming year. Their term will begin on March 12.
This is not the first milestone for the Campus Y in recent years. The 2020-21 Campus Y co-presidents, Veda Patil and Thilini Weerakkody, made history as the first co-presidents to both be women of color.
Changes in staff, the COVID-19 pandemic and the recent vandalism forced the Campus Y to adapt to and meet various challenges in the past year.
However, the students and staff of the Y have been resilient. This recent election is a testament to the Campus Y community and its ability to further the Y’s mission.
The election of Daniels and McGloin represents a positive shift for not only the Campus Y community, but for the University community as well. This is promising, given the University's long and sordid history of white supremacy.
The Y regularly deals with issues of race in its social justice work, and Daniels and McGloin recognize the impact their shared identities will have on the Campus Y.
“As Black women, we know that we're often vulnerable to lots of different forms of oppression, and lots of different things on this campus that we're vulnerable to,” Daniels said in an interview with The Daily Tar Heel.
Patil and Weerakkody, this year's co-presidents, demonstrated grace and rose to the challenges of this year. Amid the pandemic, racial reckonings and attacks on the Y, they emphasized accountability and empathy. They set a solid foundation for Daniels and McGloin to build upon.
