By: Kelsey Aylor, Senior Writer
It’s a normal Tuesday lunch hour. Students are milling about Zack’s, chatting, purchasing their food and sitting at tables with friends to eat. All appears normal, commonplace – just a regular school day. That is, until a large group of students casually stroll in, all sporting matching t-shirts with three simple words on them: “Make Wofford Fun.”
That three-word phrase is the new slogan of Will Zeigler’s bid for 2017-2018 Student Body President. Zeigler ’18, an environmental science and business economics major, has been pushing his campaign in highly visible ways; t-shirts, stickers and buttons, even as far as a Snapchat geofilter.
Although the rising senior has never served as a Campus Union delegate, he has worked in positions directly with members of the administration and Board of Trustees, such as with last year’s committee reviewing the Greek leases.
“I’m very good at taking issues that the students have and presenting them to the administration in a very professional, organized way,” says Zeigler.
Considering Wofford to be a triangle, with the student body, the administration and the Board of Trustees as the corners, one of the candidate’s main concerns is the connection and interaction between the three.
“I’m all about student input but it feels like administration is putting a wall between the students and the board,” he says. “It’s almost as if the administrators listen to student concerns, but already have their mind made up of what they plan to do.”
Zeigler directly cites the extensive discussions that took place in regards to the Greek village leases and says, that despite initial issues with the liability, rent and other restrictions, it wasn’t until intense student, alumni and board engagement that the changes were made.
“The environment is changing and moving away from many of the past traditions and activities that made Wofford a special experience,” he notes. “The Wofford culture is changing and where there was once an incredible community, I’m seeing more fragmentation and separation.”
Zeigler has proposed adding a student representative to the Board of Trustees to serve as an advocate. He says, “By representing the students and really pushing the issues that they want, we have a lot of potential for improvement—it’s a great growing opportunity for the student in that role, extremely marketable to prospective students and will help the school and its communication overall.”
Other aspects of Zeigler’s campaign include a focus on and investigation into Wofford’s decreased competitiveness in terms of admission standards as well as increase in student engagement with athletics, proposing the creation of “wet” areas at athletic events.
To get his name out and his message heard, he has utilized the aforementioned campaign products. Funding his journey is a GoFundMe campaign which has raised over $800. Much of the money comes from alumni donors.
“There are a lot of alumni currently upset with the school and the direction that it is moving in, so I’m pitching myself to them as someone who is going to change that and represent their interests as well,” he says. “These donors are backing out because they feel that if they’re donating this money their interests should be considered and that isn’t currently happening.”
Through his current slogan, Zeigler doesn’t intend to suggest that Wofford is no longer fun, but rather that “a lot of the things that make it fun are under attack and changing.” He aims for the transparency and connectivity that will allow “students to be students” while also giving their voices a chance to be heard and legitimately considered.
Zeigler has competitors in Drake McCormick and Chie Mushayamunda for the spring elections, but he is the first to start formalized campaigning. Although elections are weeks away, the Wofford campus will continue to see more Zeigler paraphernalia as more buttons, stickers, t-shirts and Snapchat filters will be rolled out. An event is also in the works.