SBP candidate Tim Longest aims to unite students, ensure UNC’s accessibility

For Tim Longest, no issue is more important than inclusivity.

If elected student body president, Longest said he will work to “reclaim the community” — which amounts to a push toward unity on campus and creating a forum for dialogue between campus groups.

“I see UNC as being a great campus with a lot of wonderful people, but as a community at large we very often split off into segments,” he said.

“I really want to make this campaign about reuniting those passions behind a common purpose and a common good.”

Foremost among the issues Longest plans to apply this sentiment to is tuition.

“I think we are at a crisis of identity at UNC now, something centered around the tuition issue,” he said. “Maintaining affordability and accessibility harkens back to the idea that UNC is a University of the people — an idea that I feel is seriously in question.”

Longest has been involved in the tuition debate since the beginning and was part of current Student Body President Mary Cooper’s tuition task force.

“I think a tuition hike will see Carolina become a more privatized, more exclusive institution that will lose its soul in the process,” he said. “We need to do everything we can to prevent that.”

Longest said he will continue fighting to ensure that UNC remains accessible and affordable by approaching the state legislature.

He said Cooper’s lobbying efforts weren’t taken far enough.

Longest said transparency and broader campus involvement in student government are key to this process.

“I want to make student government less about advocating for students and more about empowering students to advocate for themselves,” he said.

In an early step toward this goal, Longest has set up the Hark the Sound initiative — a feature on his website that allows students to petition for issues to be included in his platform.

Paige Comparato, Longest’s campaign manager, said the initiative reflects his vision of a student government that works with students for their betterment.

“He is really trying to give people an outlet for their ideas,” she said. “He will be a very approachable student body president who will really work with the students.”

She said his campaign features realistic and goal-oriented initiatives.

“He will persevere no matter what,” she said.

Longest said his administration would step outside the student government office and onto campus in an effort to be more visible and accessible to students.

The ultimate motivation to run for student body president, he said, is a love for UNC and its history.

Longest’s housemate Jeff DeLuca said Longest is actively committed to fighting tuition hikes.

“I don’t think there is a single person on campus who knows more about the tuition debate than him, and that’s probably the single most important issue facing students today,” he said.

“He is a leader who listens, he takes the initiative and is not afraid to step up.”

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