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Why I’m Voting for Theodore Nollert
A perspective from Andrew Gary
This election cycle I will be casting my vote for Theodore Nollert for Chapel Hill Town Council. I am an undergraduate at UNC, and I met Theodore through our work in student government. Because of my work with him, I can say with confidence that Theodore will be a thoughtful Town Council member because he is both someone who deeply understands the issues – and someone who can build broad coalitions across issues that are nuanced and complicated.
Theodore served as the President of the Graduate and Professional student body at UNC, where he represented over 10,000 graduate and professional students. There are many stories I can tell about Theodore from his time as GPSG President, but there is one story in particular that I remember the most: during his time as GPSG President, Theodore and I worked together to make student government elections more democratic. This had been a years-long issue which went unsolved because undergraduates and graduates couldn’t work together to address the many problems that made voting difficult. Without Theodore’s leadership, willingness to build coalitions, and ability to move projects forward, elections at UNC would have remained deeply broken and undemocratic.
Beyond work to fix how student government functions, Theodore heard from many constituents about the need for a higher graduate student stipend, which he successfully negotiated for graduate students. He also listened to graduate and professional students who continue to struggle to live in Chapel Hill due to the high cost of living.
Theodore heard this, and decided that he needed to serve beyond the campus. He joined the Planning Board in Chapel Hill, where he has spent a ton of hours reading detailed plans about Chapel Hill. He knows that UNC and Chapel Hill go hand in hand – and that solving tricky problems requires both to be at the table.
I will admit: I find land use codes to be a little boring. But Theodore’s ability to inspire people and get them excited about something like the finer points of the land use management ordinance is a testament to not only his ability to understand the depths of the issues affecting Chapel Hill but his ability to energize people and to specifically motivate students to look beyond UNC’s campus and work for the betterment of everyone in Chapel Hill. I will be voting for Theodore Nollert, and I hope you will too.
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