From North Carolina Wesleyan College

North Carolina Wesleyan College sophomore Emanuel Williams ran unopposed for the college’s position of 2015-2016 Student Government Association (SGA) president last spring, but he campaigned for the job anyway before being elected.

Williams is from Washington and is majoring in criminal justice with a minor in business administration.

“Nobody ran against me, but I still campaigned because I wanted to give students a reason why they should vote for me,” Williams said, taking a break recently after he finished his morning classes. “I wanted to be sure the students wanted me to be their SGA president.”

He told his fellow Wesleyan students of several things he wants to accomplish.

First, he explained that he wants to make sure the SGA follows its constitution. He wants to see all SGA positions filled with students who uphold the responsibilities of their positions. “We’re actually working on that right now,” he said recently. “We’re getting a lot of students involved in the Student Government Association.”

“The second thing I want to do is get that college feel here at Wesleyan, and I think we’re doing an awesome job of doing that in the first few weeks since fall classes started. The SGA is going to do about two events this semester, and I challenge all other clubs and organizations to do events so we can keep things going.

“The third thing is that we want to keep doing what the last SGA was doing, and that is to keep strengthening our relationship with the City of Rocky Mount. We’re just going to let more of the community know we would love for them to come to campus and enjoy activities here…. And we want to ask the community what we can do to help benefit them.”

In addition to devoting time to the SGA, Williams serves as a resident assistant for the third floor of Collins Hall. In that leadership role he provides information, participates in activities and generally serves as the go-to person for his fellow students.

Founded in 1956, North Carolina Wesleyan College is a four-year, private, coeducational, liberal arts institution affiliated with the United Methodist Church. Its 200-acre campus is located in Rocky Mount. More than 900 traditional students are enrolled on the main campus, with an additional 1,000 adult students in the college’s ASPIRE adult degree program in locations throughout eastern North Carolina and Raleigh-Durham.