This year’s student body presidential ballot includes three candidates: Adolfo Alvarez, Kailey Wadsworth and Jakob Williams. The student body president is tasked with representing the voices of the 20,681 undergraduate Tar Heels to University administration — it’s essential that the student body elects a peer who will advocate for the needs of all Carolina community members.
This student government election cycle went at a breakneck pace. As opposed to the bureaucratic dramatics that blighted the past few years, this year’s campaign season barely lasted a month. As a result, students are less familiar with the candidates and dissatisfied with the University’s attitude toward student self governance. On the up side, all candidates are unquestionably qualified, and all would fill the position well.
At UNC, the student body president should not only be able to advocate for the views of their campus but also have that advocacy influence the University’s decisions. While colleges undeniably operate as businesses, students are their primary stakeholders, and many institutional decisions directly affect them. Whether in political representation or financial investments, students should not feel powerless within their own universities.
In the past four years, we have seen student body president campaigns become progressively more unrealistic, in large part due to their reduced role in campus governance. The student body president is granted a seat on the Board of Trustees, but it has become quite clear the BOT has no genuine interest in student input. Last year we watched as the UNC administration called the police on their own peacefully protesting students — it is hard to imagine a student body president’s pseudo seat on the board will hold any real sway among them.
The most important role of the student body president is as an advocate for the student body, but they have a role in policy too. However, many policies outlined by candidates, while commendable and great ideas, seem to be unrealistic; instituting academic advisors for undocumented students, expanding financial aid and improving campus accessibility oppose trends from the BOT and the Lee Roberts administration. While these are innovative and essential ideas, they will be very hard to achieve.
As candidates curate flashy Instagram pages promising things they might not have the capacity to accomplish, students should focus on who will best fill the role for advocacy. While it is unlikely that the elected candidate will wield much meaningful power within the BOT, policies that improve student resources and wellness are within a feasible range of scope. Some recent successes under Jaleah Taylor’s administration include passing the meal swipe donation plan to address food insecurity and fundraising for Western North Carolina following Hurricane Helene.
While there is no perfect candidate in an imperfect system, Alvarez seems to best understand the strictures of the position. He acknowledges the unlikelihood of swaying administration’s broader policies regarding free speech, but champions greater transparency about students’ rights, which is a step in the right direction that could lay groundwork for future reform. Further, his plans for a "Carolina Closet" of rentable business attire is a plausible way to address some effects of class divides on campus that could benefit students of all backgrounds.
Alvarez has never worked with student government, but his outsider status, coupled with ambitious policies and a commitment to student advocacy, make him a stellar voice for the student body. Like many institutions, student governments can be prone to insulation and disconnect from the people they must serve, but Alvarez’s perspectives position him to challenge the status quo and push for engaged leadership. It is for these fresh perspectives and policy aspirations that The Editorial Board endorses Adolfo Alvarez to be UNC’s next student body president.
