As an international student who is passionate about bridging gaps between different cultures and enabling other minority students to voice their unique struggles at Emory University , Muhammad Sami (25C) is exactly what College Council (CC) needs. We believe he has the drive and initiative that will allow him to implement substantive change while fostering a stronger Emory community and empowering minority students. As such, it is with great conviction that the Emory Wheel’s Editorial Board endorses Sami for the next CC vice president.
Sami has proven his commitment to the Emory and Atlanta communities with his resolute background and determination. As current vice president of communications on CC, Sami has successfully established a relationship with administrators and multiple campus offices, such as the Office of Spiritual and Religious Life and Emory’s Middle Eastern and South Asian Studies department, and thoroughly understands the club chartering and financing process as a student leader himself. Sami also serves as the Pakistani Students Association (PSA) social chair, where he has proven his organizational and leadership skills. Using social media and video content, he has increased student engagement within PSA, resulting in an increase in views and attendance to their events, Sami told the Wheel in an interview.
Throughout his platform, Sami expressed his concerns regarding flexibility of dining hours during breaks. As a low-income, international student with halal preferences, he shares in the sentiments of meal accessibility and affordability on campus. Sami proposes constructive discussions with Emory dining, collaborating with other student groups and ideally bringing meal swipes back to Cox Hall. Although his dining plan is ambitious, we are confident in his ability to improve dining and urge Sami to provide a more detailed plan in his platform to share with the student body.
In the spirit of fostering unity, Sami hopes to work with secular and non-secular organizations on campus and encourage interfaith discussions at Emory. He anticipates resentment from certain students, yet prioritizes criticism as a way to promote unity through civil discourse. Sami’s desire to build bridges between religious groups on campus is an admirable quality in a candidate and demonstrates his goals to make CC and the greater Emory community a more tolerant and unified space.
Further, a main pillar of Sami’s campaign is creating a centralized resource database for student leaders. In his current role on CC, he monitors the Council’s email and notices several students share similar questions and concerns regarding budgeting and operations. His acuity, as well as the frustrations this issue created for students and CC itself, served as the primary motivators behind digitizing core resources. He hopes to continue his work with the senior director of the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion while still promoting his overarching mission of stimulating student-led change.
If elected for CC vice president, Sami promises to engage with different communities to advocate for better mental health resources for students. Similarly, he hopes to uplift the voices of more demographics and minorities within conversations of mental health. To achieve this, Sami is currently working on an initiative for Emory’s Counseling and Psychological Services to hire counselors that represent different races, ethnicities and communities.
In an interview with the Wheel, Sami described his persona as a leader built on listening to student concerns, particularly those of minority groups at Emory. He hopes to make CC more relatable to students and help them understand what CC is doing. As Sami puts it, he hopes to “work like an organization, rather than a single entity.”
Sami’s conviction in moving away from reliance on administration and toward a future of student-led change is empowering and heartening. In order to guarantee substantive change and representation of all student groups from CC, Emory college students should vote for Sami.
Assistant Opinion Editor Ellie Fivas (24Ox) serves as Oxford-Atlanta Liaison for the Oxford and Emory Student Government Associations. She recused herself and was not involved in writing or editing this editorial. Editorial Board members with conflicts of interest with candidates recused themselves from the relevant endorsements.
The above editorial represents the majority opinion of the Wheel’s Editorial Board and Opinion Editor Sophia Peyser. The Editorial Board is composed of Isabelle Bellott-McGrath, Rachel Broun, Evelyn Cho, Ellie Fivas, Marc Goedemans, Aayam Kc, Elyn Lee, Saanvi Nayar, Shruti Nemala, Nushrat Nur and Sara Perez.
