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SOURCE: The Herald Sun
03.11.07
UNC student president to make government more inclusive
By: Jamie Schuman
CHAPEL HILL -- Eve Carson, who was voted UNC's student body president last month, is in many ways not your typical candidate.
Carson, who is from Athens, Ga., spent most of her first three years at Carolina not in student government, but working with other groups, such as the service organization Campus Y.
Carson wants to use her outside-the-beltway background to make student government more inclusive.
The perception on campus, she said, was that "student government has become an elite group of students, and sort of a closed community."
Carson wants to change that.
"Making suggestions for your school should not be an intimidating process," she said.
Carson decided to run for office not just to get more people involved, but because she had ideas to improve UNC but had trouble finding the right avenue to implement them.
So she got her feet wet this year by serving on UNC's academic advising board and student aid committee.
Her ideas for office include starting a speaker series that would bring "big names," like politicians and news analysts to campus -- especially timely during a national election year, she said.
She also wants to increase people's awareness of student government's activities and role, expand technology use on campus and start a scholarship for people who succeed while in college.
Carson also said she wanted to promote cooperation between student and town leaders, and work with Chapel Hill officials to get better lighting in rental neighborhoods.
She's also interested in having forums where students and local leaders share ideas about growth in Chapel Hill, and in the Triangle.
Carson assumes office next month, taking over from UNC senior James Allred.
Allred is, in some ways, Carson's opposite. He grew up in Chapel Hill, and has been involved in student government since freshman year.
Allred said he was excited that Carson would bring a different perspective to the office, as she knew a wide variety of people on campus through the service activities she did.
"The hope is that she will bring these people with her, and bring this whole new cast of characters into student government," Allred said.
He added that, since Carson is from out of state, she should have interesting input for next year's tuition talks. The student body president serves on the UNC Board of Trustees and is co-chair of the campus tuition and fees task force. Price hikes for nonresident students have been a controversial topic on those boards in recent years.
Carson, who studied at the University of Georgia while in high school, said her intimate knowledge of another university should help her bring new ideas about how to improve UNC.
Majoring in political science and biology and interested in public health, she said she decided to come north for college because she visited UNC and everything just clicked. It was a beautiful spring day, people were playing Frisbee, the Yogurt Pump was good and everyone seemed happy and content, she said.
"I just had a moment, and I just sort of knew that that's where I was going to go next year," she said.
