UNC, meet your student body vice president Jacob Morse

The student body vice president flies under the radar of many UNC students.

Do you know who the student body vice president is? “Nope,” sophomore Joey Surles said.

Do you know what kind of work the vice president does? “No,” sophomore Lexie Correa said.

Though he may be unknown to many students, current student body vice president Jacob Morse is highly involved in UNC’s day-to-day operations.

Morse, a public policy and political science major from Mooresville, was studying in Washington, D.C. as a part of a seminar offered by Honors Carolina when he received the news that he would be student body vice president for the 2013-14 school year.

Student Body President-Elect Andrew Powell received recommendations Thursday for who will become his vice president. Powell said he has several strong candidates and wants them to work on projects they’re passionate about once the pair takes office in April.

Now more than ever, Morse has had to balance the various aspects of life.

“I think what many people forget is that I am also a student who has a life,” he said. “Another tough aspect of the job is balancing competing interests of students … sometimes you just have to be willing to take some heat for something you believe in.”

His days are jam-packed despite taking a lighter class load for his last semester.

On Wednesday, the day started with an 8 a.m. meeting to discuss the Student Union bylaws. He then had an 11 a.m. class, Public Policy 698. After class he dropped by his office before grabbing lunch and going to another meeting on South Campus, which revolved around LGBT students.

“We discussed incorporating those statistics in with the other minorities at the University,” Morse said, as he trekked back to campus for a meeting to discuss a new shuttle system for in-state students.

He spent nearly 50 minutes discussing the practicality of break shuttles at UNC with members of several departments, including the Department of Public Safety and the Office of New Students and Carolina Parent Program.

“Jacob and I have been on a lot of committees together,” said April Mann, director of New Students and Carolina Parent Program, adding emphasis on “a lot.”

After the meeting wrapped up, Morse quickly packed his work into his backpack.

“I have an interview with Dance Marathon people at 4,” Morse said, moving to his office in the Union Annex. “I think they just want to have me do something embarrassing for a video to publicize DM, but I really am not sure.”

The clock read 4:11 p.m. He originally wanted to schedule the meeting for 4:30, but moved it up per the request of the representative. He started to regret changing the time when the representative walked in at 4:21; just as he expected, she wanted to film him doing his favorite dance moves.

“How long would I be shown for? Not more than a minute or thirty seconds right?” he asked, trying to minimize the damage.

He managed to get out of flashing any moves on camera.

“I hate to see myself on video too, especially when the goal is to be funny,” he said after the representative left.

After meeting with Dance Marathon, Morse had an appointment at 5 with some of his staff to talk about the hardship parking committee.

His staff left as he checked his schedule; two more meetings left to go in the day, one with the Carolina Union Board of Directors and the other with the Students Fee Audit Committee.

Morse could have decided to call it a day after all of the meetings, but he added one more item to his schedule.

“I’m going to try to make church tonight,” Morse said. “It is Ash Wednesday after all.”

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