No, this isn’t an article about Wiz Khalifa or Taylor Gang. It’s actually about newly elected UGBC president Mike Kitlas. Although Kitlas confessed that he did choose his campaign colors in part due to the hit song.
“It was partially intentional. We knew it was a popular song, and we wanted students to connect our colors to something.”
It turns out that a lot more thought and preparation (like taking into account popular songs) goes into campaigning than the average student might think.
Take for example the Kitlas/Long slogan “We Are Building Community.” Kitlas says that, though it seems simple enough, it took them forever to come up with the slogan. It also takes a ton of people to run a campaign for president. Their campaign team included campaign managers, coordinators, and even a person whose main task was simply to schedule team lunches and team dinners. Kitlas said that those team meals were really important because his favorite part of campaigning was getting to know everyone so well. Still, campaigning was a hectic time for everyone involved, and Kitlas admits that the worst part was trying to keep up with schoolwork during the time. But it was certainly worth all the stress and hard work in the end.
Kitlas, a junior and economics major, decided to run for UGBC back in December, but it was something that he had thought about for a while. He explained that he realized he wanted to run for president after becoming the director of campus entertainment, which put him in charge of allocating the budget for that committee. This was a really important experience for him in terms of taking on more responsibility within UGBC.
As for his running mate and fellow junior, Jill Long, Kitlas explains that thetwo “just clicked.” They have been working together since freshman year, when they met through the Mentor Leadership Program. The two juniors had similar ideas and visions, but different experiences within UGBC, so the platform easily came together. He says that the two of them are very “real people.” What this means is that they set realistic goals for their platform, rather than lofty, idealistic, and probably impossible promises.
The Kitlas-Long platform was, of course, incredibly detailed. However, there were a few standout things that Kitlas thought were very important to include. He talked about the idea of a “programming caucus”—a place for all of the organizations on campus to come together and talk about what they are doing. With so many different organizations on campus, there is a lot of overlap and goals. Kitlas would love to see more communication and collaboration between all of these groups. He says achieving this would come from using things like Google docs and Google calendars and, of course, from the implementation of MyBC. Hopefully, there could also be some kind of meeting of these groups by having club representatives meet and express the ideas of their respective organizations.
Kitlas also mentioned the UGBC website. He is hopeful that during his administration improvements can be made to make the website, making it more user friendly and accessible. This works in tandem with one of Kitlas’ main goals, which is to remind students that UGBC is the liaison between students and the administration, and a resource that can be used for many different things.
So whether you voted for Mike Kitlas because of his platform, his “real” attitude, or just because you really love Wiz Khalifa, it’s time to welcome in your 2011-2012 UGBC President!