A Conversation with 2022-2023 Student Body President Taliajah “Teddy” Vann
Incoming Student Body President Taliajah “Teddy” Vann shares her vision for her administration. Source: Daily Tar Heel / Ira Wilder
Many people told Student Body President-elect Taliajah “Teddy” Vann that it would be impossible for her to win the election. “There were a lot of people who, in my opinion, did not think that it was possible for me to win the Student Body Presidential election. They thought that it would be especially impossible for any Black woman to win with two Black women on the ballot. Those people could not have been more wrong,” she said. Instead of succumbing to pressure, Vann chose to view her doubters as a sign that she was doing something right. “Ultimately, no one is able to blaze a trail when people are expecting that to happen,” she said. As only the third Black woman in Carolina’s history to be elected Student Body President, Vann is indeed a trailblazer.
It takes tenacity to win a Student Body Presidential election, and it takes even more to do the job well. Vann says that among other things, her experience growing up as a Black individual taught her perseverance. “There’s that moment, which is a shared theme in the upbringing of a lot of Black and Brown children from stories that I’ve heard, when your parents communicate to you that you must work twice as hard and be twice as good for you to get half as much as your white counterparts,” she said. Vann said that she gained the confidence to be tenacious from the constant support of her mother. “My mom made it really clear from a young age that the bar was really high, that she was expecting a lot from me, because I made it clear to her that I expect a lot from myself,” she said.
Vann never needed the resolve that her mother helped her cultivate more than when they received the news that she had been diagnosed with cancer. “In the middle of my campaigning, in January of the holiday break, I found out that my mom had been diagnosed with breast cancer,” she recounted. More recently, Vann said that her mother worked to move her doctor’s appointments in order to attend the ceremony in which the Student Body President-elect was inducted into the Order of the Golden Fleece. “In the middle of one of the scariest moments of her life, she was still figuring out ways to be there for me. I can’t put into words the role that she has played in my life,” she said. The deep love that Vann and her mother share is something that has been the best preparation for success Vann could ask for. “How do you not meet the expectation of greatness when you are believed in so much, when so much love is being poured into you?” she said.
In a previous interview with the Carolina Political Review, Vann said that she ran her campaign “because our students need so much support.” Vann identified multiple areas in which her administration plans to support students going forward. First, she plans to build an Executive Branch filled with people “who are going to do this work diligently and who will serve not because it looks good on a resume, but because they believe they can make a difference in the lives of students.” Vann says this will be a boon to student government because it will allow her administration to excel in areas where she is not well versed. For example, she plans to add a Department of Environmental Affairs in order to address student concerns about the ways in which the University currently interacts with the environment. The Student Body President-elect said that her administration has an obligation to create this department for students in order to address issues in an area with which Vann admits that she is not the most familiar.
In terms of particular policy issues, Vann mentions mental health as an important area for her administration. In a previous interview with the CPR, she described the major objective of her Campus-Wide Mental Health Reform Policy. “The core of this policy is establishing and institutionalizing cooperation between CAPS, ARS (Accessibility Resource Services), and Dean of Students so that when students in need of mental health resources seek them out, they’re guaranteed to get all of the help available through the university. If one resource doesn’t have the right answers for a specific situation, it must be well informed about and well connected to the resources offered in the two other mental health spheres so that our students effectively move through every channel of support we’ve created for them,” she said. She also noted the large backlog of students seeking support from CAPS as a priority.
Two other policy areas that Vann highlighted include revising sexual assault training practices on campus in addition to increasing equity within the Honor Court. “Right now there is a disparity in justice [within our Honor Court system] for students based on demographic characteristics,” she said.
Vann said that serving as President of the Black Student Movement (BSM) has prepared her well to lead the student body as Student Body President. “I’m not flailing in the pool trying to learn to swim,” she stated. One aspect of being a leader that Vann said she learned from her role at BSM is the responsibility of being a spokesperson for the organization one leads. “Taliajah “Teddy” Vann is still a person with her own beliefs, but one thing that I learned from being President of Black Student Movement is that first and foremost as president, I am a spokesperson for Black Student Movement,” she said. Vann said that she strives to represent the interests of all Carolina students, even if they might not align with her own beliefs. “What it means to be a leader is to have the ability to separate your personal opinions from those of the constituents that you represent if they are not in alignment,” she stated.
Looking to the future, Vann recognizes that Carolina has a lot of room for improvement, but she has a deep love for the school and the student body. She points to moments when Carolina students “aren’t necessarily working on an issue but just enjoying each other’s company and the fact that we are all enrolled at Carolina” as times when she sees the community come together. She noted how the student body has rallied around UNC’s historic run during the NCAA basketball tournament this year as an example. “I know that even groups that typically say they are only at this University to get their degree will have their jerseys on this Saturday,” she said. In a statement reminiscent of a particular James Baldwin quote, Vann said that, “even when I am criticizing our University because we can be doing better, I love Carolina. I really do. Ultimately we do have a responsibility, if we love this University, to hold it to a higher standard.”
Having received just under half of all votes cast in an election with four candidates, Vann was sworn into office on Tuesday, April 5. She replaced Lamar Richards as Student Body President. Fortunately, her presidency is already off to a great start: Vann correctly predicted Carolina’s win over the Blue Devils in the Final Four of the NCAA tournament during our interview. That interview ended on a note of positivity for the future. “I’m sure next year there will be moments when things may look a little bleak. What I want us to be able to keep central is that we are all here for the same reason: to leave better than we came,” Vann said.