Young said unexpected issues such as parking, tuition and the proposed establishment of a satellite campus in Qatar prevented him from fulfilling some of his platform goals. "Given all the issues we had to deal with, our time was better spent on those," he said.
The Student Empowerment Endowment was a key issue on Young's platform when he ran for student body president in 2001.
Young donated his stipend of $2,400 to create a grant program for students on campus. Young said his administration never followed through on fund raising for the program because other issues took precedence. "It's a big disappointment for me," he said.
Young said he has not yet decided what to do with the $2,400.
Young cited tuition increases as the most pressing issue facing his administration this year. He said he attempted to rally students to lobby trustees through letters and protests, but he said the poor attendance at the Jan. 24 UNC Board of Trustees meeting where a tuition vote was taken was "very frustrating."
But Young said it was important that he helped establish the Carolina Lobby Corps last semester to teach students how to lobby members of the N.C. General Assembly about issues like tuition.
Young and his officers also dealt with parking-related issues throughout the year. Faced with the proposal for night parking charges and the possible loss of on-campus parking for resident students, Young became a member of the Transportation and Parking Advisory Committee.
But Young said he felt his connection with campus administrators deteriorating throughout the year. "It became a little more strained," he said. "It tended to be frustrating at times."
He said that once he and his officers noticed the trend, they did their best to continue to communicate student concerns to administrators. "We stepped in where we could, but the outcomes were a little unfortunate, in my eye."
