UNC students elected sophomore Lamar Richards on Feb. 23 as the 2021-2022 student body president. Richards received 59.7 percent of the 3,219 votes cast in the election — defeating his opponent, junior Keshav Javvadi.
Assistant University Desk Editor Evely Forte spoke with Richards about what he hopes he’ll accomplish through his role as SBP, how his administration will be different from previous ones and what his legacy will be at the University beyond his role in Student Government.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity. You can listen to the full interview on The Daily Tar Heel's podcast, Heel Talk.
The Daily Tar Heel: What went through your mind as you found out the results?
Lamar Richards: We didn't really receive our results until about 2:45 a.m. or 3 a.m. (on Feb. 24). My team and I were waiting around. I did have a few, maybe a couple, of close friends over, socially distanced around in my apartment, waiting on results.
The rest of my team, because we are so large, was hanging back virtually. Some did (and) others fell asleep by the time the results came in. But either way … when I got the call, I was excited. It was still — I don't think I ever processed it fully, but it was exciting to the say the least. It was, I think, a great end to a month-long campaign process.
DTH: As you look forward to the transition period, when you finally do transition into the role, what is your top priority as student body president?
LR: I will say that the transition process has already begun out on the 24th of February (when executive board) applications did go live … Those applications will be open for about a week from the 24th of February. We can expect cabinet positions to be available toward the end of March and/or beginning of April.
So part of this has already kind of started because my platform was very, very clear on my goals and intentions to restructure Student Government. That will be clear in the cabinet applications — we will see many roles we've never seen before. We will see some restructuring of how roles report and who they report to, I think an overall expansion of the number of roles that are available in Student Government. I think that’s kind of my priority for the transition, to make sure we have a well-structured and effectively structured Student Government to be able to serve beginning April ...