Betts hopes youth will help his bid

By Elisabeth Gilbert

Staff Writer

Student body president candidate Michael Betts II has a grin and a quick answer ready when asked what makes him different from the other five candidates: ""You mean"" besides being a sophomore?""

He has a lot more to say after that. But that's the first thing.

""It's not actually as unusual as people would like to make it sound. It's been done"" Betts said. But it was done 22 years ago.""

He said he wants to serve as president his junior year so he can be available as a resource to the next administration his senior year.

So Betts said he will not seek a second term if elected and will not run next year if he falls short.

""This is my one shot"" he said.

He is an active member of the finance committee of Student Congress, most notably introducing a bill to increase oversight dramatically for student groups seeking funding appropriations from Congress.

The bill passed in last night's committee meeting. It will come before the full Congress Tuesday.

But Betts isn't totally new to executive politics: he served as student body president of Grimsley High School in his native Greensboro.

Bringing those experiences are things that make me qualified — more than qualified — to do this job"" he said.

And with a platform as ambitious as his, Betts will need that experience if he does become president.

His platform's centerpiece is an aggressive student-led fund-raising campaign called Project One. Betts said he envisions the campaign as working similarly to Dance Marathon, with students hosting campus events and pledging service hours to raise cash. The student body then would have a say in where that money would go.

Among the other goals listed in his 32-page platform are instating a leadership minor, launching a new peer mentoring program, hiring a study abroad adviser for minority students and getting an Alpine Bagel Cafe inside Davis Library.

And Betts claims to have done his homework. He said he has discussed his ideas with University officials including Chancellor Holden Thorp, Provost Bernadette Gray-Little, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Margaret Jablonski — and, of course, Paul Hartley, manager of Alpine Bagel.

Paul literally wanted to get up and go build it the day we did that" Betts said.

Betts says he can easily achieve 85 percent of his platform in one year.

He hopes to advise the next administration in polishing off or continuing whatever is left of his original goals.

And his supporters say they are confident that they'll be happy with the results.

I think that he is very committed very active and he is very passionate about the stuff that he does and the things that he takes to be important" said Tanner Allison, general director of Psalm 100, in which Betts sings bass.

By Betts' account, Allison is certainly right about the active part.

I like to say there are 26 hours in the day"" Betts said. And I work 30 of those.""



Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.