Come in, campus

The goal of the student body president is to take a plethora of interests and meld them into one cohesive plan of action.

And the first challenge is finding out what these interests are and then letting students know what is being done about them - something that student leaders have found is easier said than done.

"It's a challenge - it's one of the biggest challenges," said Matt Tepper, student body president in 2003-04. "People do it to get elected, so it's possible."

"We had to make sure that we were spreading out our ways of communicating with the student body," he said.

And no one outlet is going to catch every student, said Matt Calabria, last year's student body president.

"The goal is to come up with a cocktail of different measures," he said.

If an article runs in The Daily Tar Heel, it does not mean every student reads it, he said.

It is often mentioned on campus tours that if a student were to sit in the Pit for 24 hours they would see everyone on campus.

But Calabria said he disagrees - a president cannot meet all his or her constituents by being passive. Graduate students often do not go by the Pit, and many undergraduates do not stay long enough to notice student government representatives.

"I'm usually moving through the Pit pretty fast," said Josh Long, a senior from Clemmons.

In order to reach the larger audience that he can't see in person, Student Body President Seth Dearmin is hitting the airwaves - both the television and radio variety.

He said Carolina Week and WXYC-89.3 FM are just two more ways to reach his constituency.

Tepper kicked off this tradition with "In Step with Tepp" two years ago, and Calabria and Dearmin have followed suit.

Dearmin held his third radio show Sunday, using the time to highlight UNC's distinguished professors. His next show will air Oct. 23 at 5 p.m.

Dearmin must be persistently proactive in order to get his message out, Tepper said.

E-mail is one of the fastest ways to get information out to a large number of students. And informational e-mails can reach every student on campus with a viable e-mail address in minutes.

But last year, when Calabria's administration sent out follow-up e-mails requesting student feedback, he did not receive a single reply.

Just because people are talking does not mean people are listening, Tepper said.

One of the main jobs of the student body president, Calabria said, is to condense information and tell the students what they need and want to know.

Students do not have the time to take a week to study tuition policy, he said.

"The student body president is a reflection of students' will," he said.

As if these hurdles were not big enough, the president only has one year to get things done.

One of the critical elements of a good student government is a good supporting cast, Tepper said.

"There are a lot of umbrella organizations that you can go to," he said. "Part of putting together a good student government is making sure that you've brought in a good group of students that can send the measures back out."

Dearmin says he has that support and much more going for his administration.

"We have a group of officers who are phenomenal," he said, adding that there are 40 cabinet members who are on committees in other groups and bring issues back to him to help reflect different interests.

Dearmin said he is well aware of the problems facing communication between student government and its constituency. His administration is busy sending out e-mails and getting out in the Pit. His advertised Pit sit hours are Wednesday from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.

Dearmin said his administration also is trying to get out to Polk Place and even down to the Rams Head center to reach more students.

"Not all students go through the Pit, and not all students would come up to student government members in the Pit," he said.

The newly formed Student Leader Council will be an asset in indirectly reaching students on campus and gauging their interests, Dearmin said.

The council, formed by Student Union Director Don Luse and Daily Tar Heel Editor Ryan Tuck, will meet today for the first time. It includes 25 to 30 student leaders from different campus organizations. The council will bring a variety of student leaders onto the same page, Dearmin said.

Dearmin said he tries to attend many student group meetings and let the students know that he is there to hear their concerns.

Being proactive is something Dearmin said he is learning more about each day.

"It's a learning process," he said. "We're going to do the best we can."

 

Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.