Photo Caption: Courtesy Jaleah Taylor
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – UNC now has a new student body president. She’s got a lot planned for what she’ll do in office.
Jaleah Taylor is the new Student Body President-Elect and her first goal in office is to increase transparency with the student body.
“What I really want to do is familiarize students with student government. I think it’s clear, especially with the low voter turnout this year, that a lot of students just aren’t aware of what student government does and what can what we can offer to students,” Taylor says.
“Hopping on social media and our executive branch team and filling students in on what we’re doing. I think this past year, especially as secretary, I try to do a lot of that, but I think leveraging the power as student body president on different initiatives is something that I’m looking to do,” Taylor says.
One of her other priorities is ensuring students have access to what they need. Christopher Williams, Taylor’s Campaign Field Director and Chief of Staff for the Everett administration, says he hopes to continue doing this work when Taylor is in office.
“A lot of the work that I’m excited to hopefully continue doing in the Taylor administration is around supporting basic needs at Carolina so that food insecurity, housing insecurity, financial literacy, education and then that’s also providing additional funds for individuals who might need it to engage in extracurricular activities through the Carolina Immersion Fund,” Taylor says.
While she won’t be sworn in until April, some students already have ideas for what they want to see her do. Bridget Bagley is a junior Journalism major. She is also a transfer and first-generation student.
“I think that there’s some really good groups already kind of established, but we just need a little bit more help to get those started. Like we have mentor programs, but I think some CAPS programs would be really cool. Some more transitional groups would be really nice, especially coming from a community college and coming to the, like one of the oldest established universities,” Bagley says.
And current students aren’t the only ones interested in Taylor’s plans for office. Erica Boey is a graduating senior Advertising and Public Relations major who wants to see more being done for international students.
“More emphasis on, like, resources for international students here at Carolina, just because the only resource that we have is the International Student Services, which provides us with information on visa applications and whatnot. But I think it would be great if there were more resources in terms of resources for us as well as just better ways for us to acclimate ourselves at Caroline, especially for freshmen or transfer students who are coming in,” Boey says.
To stay up to date on what Taylor and the rest of her administration are up to follow @Jaleah4sbp and @unc_executivebranch on Instagram or follow along on the website executivebranch.unc.edu.