Senator Joey Wilson

The Tiger News (TTN): How are you handling the downpour? (Wilson and Seidman had been handing out cups of coffee in the rain on Library Bridge.)

Joey Wilson (JW): One of our slogans is “All In” because we’re all in for Clemson, and we wanted to brighten people’s day. We hope people enjoyed the coffee. It’s about raising awareness of what we’re trying to do in Clemson, which is move it in the right direction.

TTN: What inspired you to run? 

JW: Nicki and I] have indirectly been friends for a while and last semester, Nicki came back from studying abroad. We ended up on the same student body committee, we started talking and we agreed about how much we loved Clemson. We saw some different improvements that could be made in our four areas which is academics, wellness and safety, student life and transparency. We had all of these ideas and our friends encouraged us to do this and now we’re here just trying to make Clemson better.

TTN: What improvements do you plan to work on in terms of student government? 

JW: 
In terms of student government, some of our biggest things involve transparency — not just between students and student government, but between the administration and students as well. We want to hold town halls every semester where students can ask student government and administration questions. We want to go face to face with students — I helped design We the Tigers when I was a freshman moving into this year and it finally got done, and we think that’s a great outlet for students to give ideas. However, we still have students with great ideas who aren’t communicating. We want to go to events, actively reach out to students and be there for them no matter what. Every student at Clemson deserves to be supported. 
We could argue that right now, it seems like there is a barrier to be in student government. That’s not something we want. I find it ironic that we’re out here giving out coffee, but if you were a student without the means to do that, you’d feel like you couldn’t run and that’s messed up. We want to take money out of the process and make it easier for people to join student government. 

TTN: What does the “Looking to stabilize the campus” part of you platform look like in terms of the bridge between Greek Life and students? 

JW: Our idea would be having a committee on student government that has both Greek and unaffiliated students together discussing all campus issues. A lot of campus issues are issues that affect everyone, but Greek Life has those same issues as well. For this committee, we want to have people collaborate to bring better events and to spread awareness. Many organizations have philanthropic issues. We want to connect Greek organizations with organizations on campus that have similar philanthropic causes and help hold events that are more collaborative and will involve more people. We’d love to see all students involved in philanthropy events and learn more about what we can do to make Clemson better and bring more awareness to causes. 
TTN: Another part of your platform is reforming the add/drop registration schedule, along with many other academic focuses. Why is this so important?
JW: So we thought that this was something that affected students recently, it’s affected me over the past three years that I’ve been here. I’ve had a lot of friends who have withdrawn from classes they shouldn’t have and I have had a lot of friends stay in classes that they shouldn’t have because they haven’t had grades yet. We think that extending [the ability to] drop is important because sometimes students get into their classes. Right now, you only have a couple and you’re not sure with what you have to deal with. Then you have to decide whether or not you’ll drop. If that’s extended, maybe people won’t stay in things that they shouldn’t unless before they get a “W.” In term of getting a “W,” we think that the Academic Forgiveness system might have some problems. I’ve had some friends who have taken classes and were going to get a B or C, didn’t want a B or C but couldn’t drop the class without getting a W, and so didn’t take the final so they could get the class forgiven. We think to help combat that, extending the drop period by a week or two would help.

TTN: How do you think your time in the Transportation and Facilities Committee has informed your campaign?

JW: I’ve worked directly with Dan Hoffman, the Director of Transportation, for about a year now and he’s great to work with. There are some transparency issues, specifically between the city of Clemson and Clemson University. CATBus is run through the City of Clemson, but currently Clemson University pays 97% of Red Route but the city is the one that makes the changes. So we want to create better communication with the larger Clemson community and advocate for what the University needs in terms of transportation. Getting people home from downtown is very important, including walking home drunk from downtown. 
We also want to reform the positions themselves. As President you advocate for what’s on your platform and you elect cabinet members and you try to get people to work. But if we’re elected we want to have our own projects that we place focus on and we push. We’re both passionate about transportation and safety, as well as mental health and sexual assault awareness. Those are things I’m working on regardless if I get elected or not.

TTN:  Could you talk about sexual assault and mental health awareness? 

JW: A hundred percent. Something I’ve been passionate about since my freshman year is trying to change the perception of mental health and sexual assault on campus. I’ve worked with It’s On Us for a year and a half now and I actually sit on the National Student Advisory committee for the movement. I work with a bunch of student body presidents and students throughout the nation to form the movement on a national scale and make it better at Clemson. I brought Joe Biden to campus and had the chance to speak before him on the topic of sexual assault. It’s something that I’m extremely passionate about.
Mental health affects every single person on campus. Everyone, if you go to CAPS or not, should have the ability to seek help from CAPS and from the Clemson family. We believe that Clemson students should have the opportunity to be trained in how to support people who are experiencing depression, as well as advocating for CAPS, because they care very much about Clemson students.

TTN: What role will social media play in your campaign?

JW: We’re trying to put stuff out there that’s fun, because we’re fun people who care about Clemson. We want people to know who we really are.

TTN: What inspired your slogan, “Moving Clemson in the Right Direction?”

JW: We were thinking about symbols one day and saw a picture of a compass. I thought that Clemson is going in the right direction, but it’s not completely there. We thought we’d talk about trying to change the direction of Clemson in four different ways: academics, student life, wellness and safety and transparency.

TTN: What do you want the Clemson community to know about you?

JW: For us, we believe that every student is entitled to pursing a fantastic Clemson experience. Every student at Clemson deserves to have a great experience.

TTN: Justin Bieber or One Direction?

JW: Justin Bieber. Is it too late to say I’m sorry.

TTN: Netflix or Hulu?

JW: Netflix and Chill.

TTN: What’s your favorite Clemson tradition? 

JW: Clemson ring, for me. You see people from Clemson wearing a ring no matter where you go. It’s so symbolic.

Senator Nicki Seidman

The Tiger News (TTN): How are you handling the downpour?

(Wilson and Seidman had been handing out cups of coffee in the rain on Library Bridge.) 

Nicki Seidman (NS): We’re really dedicated to Clemson, and if it means standing in the rain, that’s what we’re going to do.

TTN: What inspired you run?

NS: Joey and I have been in student government for three years now since freshman year and we love it. It’s what we do, but since we’ve been in it for so long, we realize that there are some improvements that we think we can do. We think we’ll be the best people to make Clemson the best place that it can be.

TTN: What improvements do you plan to work on in terms of student government?

NS: We also think a little bit of restructuring could be done so we’re thinking about adding a committee on cabinet that would help between Greek Life and non-Greek Life. There’s been a lot of issues with that and we think it’d help improve that, so that’d be a committee for all types of people — not just Greeks and that’ll help with transparency. We need to talk about these issues. Another thing that we’d like to restructure is the Council of Diversity Affairs (CODA). Diversity is a big issue and something that’s important is that diversity is not just race or color, and we think that by adding more organizations on CODA, that would help everyone have different views and to talk about it to have a more diverse campus. 
TTN: On your website it says “Looking to stabilize the campus.” What does that look like for you guys in terms of Greek Life and the bridge in between? 
NS: I would argue that there’s a barrier between Greek Life and pretty much everyone else — there’s a separation. So breaking those barriers and being more transparent, whether that’s with OCES or just administration or non-Greek students who think that the Greek system needs to be fixed. 

TTN: How do you think your time in the Transportation and Facilities Committee has informed your campaign?

SN:Being on the Transportation Facilities Committee has made us aware of all of the options, we really know the issues that need to be fixed. We’ve already been working on these issues that need to be addressed. We have the skills and resources because of the committee to address these problems directly.

TTN: Could you talk about sexual assault and mental health awareness? 

SN: We’re a Clemson Family and we always talk about supporting each other, but we need to make sure that we have those resources to support each other. And we think supporting CAPS and placing emphasis on Wellness and Health will really give those resources to provide support we need to be a proper Family. 

TTN: What role will social media play in your campaign?

SN: At the end of the day, we’re just students. When we use social media, we want people to know that we’re people too, we have fun, we take funny pictures with double chins. We’re using it to show the fun side of us.

TTN: What do you want the Clemson community to know about you?

SN:For me, it’s that we’re normal students who want Clemson to be a better place for everyone. This is our school, we love it, and we can improve it. That’s what we’re out here to do. We want to do the best things to help Clemson, and we think we have the skills and the resources to do so.

TTN: Justin Bieber or One Direction?

NS: Justin Bieber. What do u mean? 

TTN: Netflix or Hulu?

SN: Netflix. 

TTN: What’s your favorite Clemson tradition?

SN: ’55 Exchange. Clemson ice cream all the way.