Q&A: Student Body President Adolfo Alvarez discusses upcoming academic year

University Desk writer Michael Singleton spoke with 2025-26 UNC Student Body President Adolfo Alvarez about his plans for the upcoming academic year and goals to work with students throughout ongoing federal and University changes.

This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

The Daily Tar Heel: What are you most looking forward to as student body president?

Adolfo Alvarez: I am looking forward to [standing] up for the student body. I think that we cannot deny that this is going to be a challenging year for everyone. It's going to be a lot going on at the federal, state and University level. In times like this, the student body president has to be able to go into these rooms, where sometimes you're the only one that gets to enter, and have those conversations, and truly be pro-students.

I think that it's really important to understand that there are a lot of needs on campus, and you have to sometimes pick and choose which ones are affecting students the most and truly represent them.

DTH: Universities across the nation have seen slashes to federal funding, specifically to graduate education. How are you planning to potentially handle changes to federal funding at UNC?

AA: The hardest part right now is that we don't know where we're at on what's being cut. We know that the Gillings School of Global Public Health is sort of this ground zero of the funding cuts, and Gillings as a global health equity research hub is the first one to get this massive hit.

It's really easy for the student body to go into assumptions as to what is going on. I think that my job is to gain clarity on these things. Graduate stipends were a big part of this year’s student body president race, and I was endorsed by the Workers Union at UNC. I think that I do have a mandate to also advocate for a fair representation of graduate students and make sure that there's clarity if they're going to be able to keep getting stipends.

DTH: Your first executive order established various task forces. How do you hope for these organizations to help drive change at Carolina?

AA: Sometimes a lot of the big pushes that we see in student government have come from the president. We saw it with the meal swipe donation program by Jaleah Taylor, which was a great initiative that she personally advocated for. The reason why these task forces are independent and they're housed under my office is because I want to work closely with them and be involved in a lot of the conversations. We have executive directors, but a lot of these things I am pushing for personally.

As I meet [the Board of Trustees], I tell them what my priorities are and what I'm focusing on. You know, when people say, ‘What did Adolfo do as student body president?’ I think that there will be results from these task forces that people will be able to connect back to the office of the student body president.

DTH: What do you make of Chris Clemens' decision to step down? What do you think this means for the student body?

AA: I think that one of the things that I respect about Provost Clemens is that he believes in the First Amendment education. He's an academic. I think we should push the administration to make sure that a real academic is in this position, someone who will truly respect what free speech and the First Amendment mean for public education. It's going to be really important for the administration to make sure that we do not put someone in that position who will threaten free speech and education, because it's something that I will not stand behind, something that I will not just remain silent about. 

DTH: Would you like to add anything?

AA: I would like to just acknowledge that it's a time of a lot of uncertainty at the University. I see that in a lot of my peers. I think that I am here to do as much as I can, and I will do as much as I can to stand up for students. I look forward to a great year, and if anyone just sees me on campus at any time, I'm always open to having a conversation.

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