Liles Made Speaker Pro Tem

Liles, who is majoring in political science and economics, is a representative for District 7. District 7 is composed of Grimes, Mangum, Manly, Ruffin, Aycock, Graham and Lewis residence halls. He formerly served on the Student Affairs Committee of Congress.

Liles replaces former speaker pro tem Matt O'Brien. O'Brien, a prominent member of Congress, had to resign from the position of speaker pro tem Oct. 22 because he moved out of his district.

The speaker pro tem is responsible for maintaining and updating the congressional Web site and the listserv, as well as any duties the speaker of Congress wishes to delegate to him.

Liles said his main goals as speaker pro tem include effectively maintaining the Web site and opening up the lines of communication between constituents and Congress members.

"Constituencies need to know they can come to us and when they can come to us," Liles said at Tuesday's meeting.

He also said he will be taking a computer course to help him perform his duty of maintaining the Web site.

Liles said he is excited about the new position. "I was in the office first thing today, trying to get my bearings on the particulars of the job," he said Wednesday.

Will Dupont, a junior political science major who serves on Congress' Finance Committee, ran against Liles at the meeting Tuesday night. He said he was fully confident that he and Liles were qualified for the position and that there was no wrong candidate.

The first vote of the evening ended in a tie. A second vote, taken after additional members of Congress entered the meeting late, decided the outcome.

Speaker Tony Larson said that he was confident that each candidate would be qualified for the position and that he was glad he did not have to cast the tie-breaking vote. "I wanted members of Congress to make the decision," he said.

Larson said he is excited to have Liles on board. "We have ideas and an agenda already," he said.

Larson, who will be graduating in December, will leave an opening in the spot for speaker.

Liles said he hadn't thought yet about what his role will be when Larson graduates. "That's not the highest thing on my agenda right now," he said.

Larson said he is not considering who will replace him when he graduates.

"It's not my position to pick my successor," he said. "I'm going to lead (Student Congress) into the end of December."

The University Editor can be reached at udesk@unc.edu.