Most of the student body voted for Tomi Williams for AAS President. This is your chance to learn more about our President outside of the constraints of his platform and on a more personal. In this interview Tomi talks about his background, coming to Amherst, his goals on changing the student body and more!
Where are you from?
That’s a good question. My whole family is from Lagos, Nigeria and I consider myself Nigerian too but I was born in Manchester, England and have lived in America since I was about 3 or 4 years old (Ann Arbor, Michigan and Columbia, Maryland respectively). So, to answer your question, I’m kind of in limbo since none of these places are willing to take full ownership over me.
How does the climate of your home compare to Amherst?
Amherst is cold. Really cold. It get’s cold back in Maryland too but just not as quickly or as bitterly as it does here. This is particularly unfortunate for three reasons: 1) Winter clothes are very expensive. 2) I have extremely sensitive ears and am forced to wear ear muffs for which I am continuously ridiculed. 3) As a naturally warm-blooded Nigerian, I am forced to occasionally wear thermal underwear. If you do not already know what that is, I encourage you not to look it up as you will certainly think less of me.
What inspired you to attend Amherst?
he jerk chicken and lamb at Val played a huge role in my decision to come here. Needless to say, I am pretty upset that they got rid of the former.
The obvious aside, I came here for the diversity. Cliche, I know, but hear me out. Statistically, Amherst is very diverse, however, we don’t take advantage of this diversity nearly enough in practice. For this, I am often as much of a culprit of this crime as anyone else. However, during my freshman year the idea of immersing ourselves into a diverse community was instilled in us. It has changed my life for the better. The best way I can articulate this is through a freshman year story.
I came to Amherst on the soccer team and instantly made 30 best friends. Through our shared love for the sport we inevitably had a lot in common and a tough pre-season created opportunities for bonding and shared experience. On the other hand, there was my roommate–Nasir. On the surface, we had absolutely nothing in common but if you dug a bit deeper below the superficial…we still had nothing in common. He was–what I initially thought–a strange Jordanian who proudly wore an exact replica of the precious Lord of the Rings ring around his neck and had just absurd sleeping habits (sorry Nas, I promise this gets nice eventually).
It wasn’t until a couple of months into the school year that I realized that Amherst College, with that six or seven question, magical ResLife survey, had set me up with the coolest kid on campus and my eventual best friend. The man plays over five instruments, is one of the smartest and most perceptive people I have ever met, and, above all, is a genuinely really good guy. Nothing has changed. He still is rather strange and maintains a seriously unhealthy sleeping schedule, but our relationship and three years as roommates is evidence enough that Amherst is not selling lies about its diversity. We just have to take advantage of it.
So long story short, I came to Amherst because there were people different from me, smarter than I am, and free access to learning from and about them which has consequently made me a much better/happier Tomi.
Why did you decide to run for AAS President?
I suppose now that I am now longer in campaign mode, I can answer this question a little bit less like a robot. Apart from all the reasons I mentioned during the election–which were all true and important– the main reason I ran for president was to change. Change perceptions, and (hopefully) change the school.
Change Perceptions: I have had the good fortune of being a member of the AAS since freshman year. I was immediately thrown into a position of leadership as the Judiciary Council Chair and in turn received a lot of feedback from the various students with whom I had to work. It seemed like the general impression on campus was that the AAS was just a bunch of unapproachable, self important know-it alls who sat in the red room on Mondays and argued. Even worse, I would constantly be confronted with the half sarcastic, half serious question of “What do you guys even do?”
Ironically, before I joined AAS, I may have thought the same thing. But working with these people every week and some multiple times a week, I have come realize that this impression could not be further from the truth. Those that I have worked on Senate and the AAS care more about their classmates and Amherst as a whole more than I could possibly articulate here.
The truth is, the AAS derives it’s effectiveness almost entirely from the fact that the student body has faith in us. When we go before the administration, alumni, the Board of Trustees, or whomever to represent the interest of the student body it is only the confidence and support of the student body that gives any credibility. So it’s a bit of a perpetual cycle, the worse that the AAS is perceived, the less effective we are and it is entirely on us to change that image.
Change the School: Amherst is a special place academically, athletically, and in regards to the kind of extraordinary human capital we are surrounded by (in terms of students, faculty and staff) and I’m willing to go to bat for it and any our students or employees any day of the week. That being said, there are people who don’t feel happy here, who feel marginalized, lonely, and even targeted and that’s not good. I suppose when you get a group of intelligent and competitive people together, the environment can be prone to becoming a bit adversarial. When this becomes a barrier to building proper community and sustaining a familial bond amongst schoolmates, we are failing at a big part of what college is meant to be. It should never be one sect of Amherst versus another sect of Amherst. Rather we should coming together around common causes and against other schools (ahem…Williams).
I’m sure this seems a bit abstract and even cliche. I know that that every president that has come and gone has said he same thing and promised to change it, and that my actions over the next few months will speak a lot louder than the words on this page but, to answer the question, I ran for president because I have loved my two years here and I really do love this school but I can’t fully enjoy this experience knowing that other students are unhappy or lonely or unheard here, specially if there is something we can do about it.
What other clubs are you apart of?
For my first two years at Amherst, I played on the Varsity Men’s soccer team. I absolutely loved the experience and made some of closest friends in the world through the team. While it is tough not spending as much time with the guys everyday, not playing has been a great opportunity to continue to expand my horizons and experience Amherst. Up until recently I was a member of the Amherst Mock Trial team and I currently serve as the vice president of the Amherst Consulting Group as well as play for the club soccer team.
What do you do to have fun?
For fun I like to play a lot of Fifa, watch documentaries, cook/bake and read. But mostly play Fifa.
What is something that not many people know about you?
I am a sugar addict. Not like in the way that people generally joke about being sugar addicts. I actually have a problem. I drink anywhere from 9-15 cups of Pink Lemosprade (3/5 lemonade and 2/5 sprite) a day. It gets worse. On almost everything I eat–from burgers, to fries, to chicken (nuggets, tenders, wings, you name it), to hotdogs– I put syrup on it. You may think that “Oh Tomi, you got that from Elf.” On all that is good I promise I have been doing that since before Will Ferrel was even casted for the role of Elf.
So if you see me with a bag of candy or two, some lemosprade, or (most dangerously) syrup, be a friend…please stop me.