Finding a balance: Leimenstoll must be able to walk the walk and talk the talk

A poll posted on The Daily Tar Heel’s website in the weeks leading up to this year’s student body president election revealed that, more than anything else, an overwhelming majority of our readers wanted a leader who was a good public speaker.

While this is an obvious asset for a leader under any circumstances, it seems it was especially relevant to student voters after this year’s chaotic and frustrating tuition discussions (or lack thereof).

Students felt largely disenfranchised, and their desire for an advocate is more than understandable.

Only 1 percent of the 13,164 people who took the poll said they sought a candidate who could unite student groups. Five percent wanted a candidate who would lower tuition and fees, and 3 percent said they hoped for a student body president who would make campus life easier.

(Curiously, only 4 percent said they wanted someone who could represent student opinion to the Board of Trustees.)

This means that fully 87 percent of the readers polled said they valued the next student body president’s oratory skills above all else — or at least above the other skills and goals listed above.

It is no coincidence, then, that students were drawn this year to Will Leimenstoll, a charismatic and personable candidate who articulated himself well throughout his campaign.

But even if, as the poll suggests, students want their student body president to be more of a figurehead than a policy wonk, those involved in student government must not forget the small but significant impacts they can have — regardless of whatever drama is unfolding in tuition discussions or elsewhere.

Amid all the debate about tuition (an issue which was, at the end of the day, out of the control of student government), it might have been easy to overlook an important fact: Mary Cooper succeeded in achieving all of her “big three” campaign points.

Cooper employed a thoroughly pragmatic approach to student government, and her efforts paid off: CCI printing was expanded, the Student Enrichment Fund was launched and a flat-rate taxi service is in development.

These three achievements helped define Cooper’s administration as one that focused on small and sensible goals and got results. It is hard not to call it a success.

Many of Leimenstoll’s goals are ambitious, and there’s certainly something to be said for seeing the bigger picture.

But there is also much to be said for smaller — achievable — goals. Even though the expansion of CCI printers may not seem to affect the average student as much as tuition hikes, it still marks an improvement in their day-to-day lives.

The success of the Cooper administration cannot be forgotten. Leimenstoll will need to combine this model of achievement through pragmatism with his own loftier goals to attain the synthesis of rhetoric and policy success that the coming year will likely demand. His cabinet selections indicate he understands the need for this balance.

At the end of the day, however, the student body president is more than a figurehead. We hope to see Leimenstoll and his stellar team deliver results.