Charles Ye: Mayoral Candidate Interview

Duncan: Charles, so great to have you here. How’s your day been? 

Charles: My day? 

Duncan: Yeah. 

Charles: So far, so good

Duncan: So jumping into the questions, obviously boarding, you know, issues with the boarding community, that's a big thing for all the mayors.Kind of the rules that have changed y'all not being able to get into your dorms until, you know, class or all classes end. So what do you feel is more important? Protecting borders freedom or encouraging their engagement in the community? Because that's, you know, engagement in the community is why they lock the doors.

Charles: Yeah. I’ll explain my perspective for sure. And the general perspective. Yeah. So basically I was talking to Mr. Rowlett. All multiple times just trying to solve this problem and make all the boarders go back [to the way things were]. And, you know, every single time it's like a 30 minutes walk or 50 minutes walk from last time. 

Duncan: Really?

Charles: Yeah. Last time I was trying to talk to him for 50 minutes to ask him to. So basically, in the beginning, I tried to make him allow the border students to just, like, go back to the dorm. And there's no more dorm lock. Then I realized that one doesn't work because every time I talked to him he never said yes. So then I changed my plan a little bit. So all of a sudden, last time I was talking to I was saying that basically, if the border students have a free and for the last block and also they have or, you know, for example, their classes already, then they can go back to the dorm already. Yeah, around 250 or 3.

Duncan:  Seems like a fair compromise.

Charles: So he first said yes or kind of said yes. He's like, okay, okay, maybe he'll consider. And the offer moved the time to 2:50. He started saying no and everything. I know. Really? Yes. So I asked him, hey, what's the reason Mr.Rowlett? And all that, that we can't go back to the dorm over time is the same answer. The answer is, he wants the boarding students to engage with the students more, but you cannot push other people to do stuff that you want them to do. So, for example, some of the walls they just have, they just like to have fun. It was like, was like their friends, right? For sure. And and they also have day student friends who it's all for. They're going to have day student friends. And for the clubs and stuff, Mr. Rowlett said the reason why he doesn't want us to go outside the dorm in the daytime is because he wants us to hang out with day students and go to the clubs. Yeah, but the boarding students are going to club anyway. Like we already signed up. Yeah, we set up the club for ourselves. So what is the reason for us not to go? He is trying to make us look like we don't do anything that we sign up for. And then we're being pushed by the teachers to do it. 

Duncan: So you feel like Mr. Rowlett and just kind of the administration in charge of boarding in general is trying to frame you as not participatory when you guys are engaging with community and signing up for clubs. Their actions, you're saying, make you feel like they think that you are not an active member of the–

Charles: think about something else, right? For example, his main argument for us not going back to the dorm is that you want us to participate more in the clubs and also engage with the day students, right? Yeah. But then imagine what he asked. Imagine last week when I talked for 50 minutes, asking him whether we could go back to the dorms early if we had a free period in the last class? That student wants nothing to do with the people's club or engagement with the day students because you already had a full day of classes. The last class, you are so tired. Like your mind is not there, right? Like, most people are like that.

Duncan: Yeah, I can relate. 

Charles: So if you have a free or your class ends early and you're already tired, why do you still want to talk to other people? Not as much. Like you don't want to like, like still, you know, walk up to their field and start playing volleyball or something. You want to, like, rest a little bit in your dorm because everyone needs their own personal resting moment. Like, for sure, people need 20 minutes of their, like, personal space time.

Another reason he says we cannot go back to the dorms is because it would give the boarders more privilege. If we can go back to the dorm than the students. Well, think about this. The day students can go back to their home anytime they want. They can just drive themselves back. Or they ask their parents. But the borders we can't because the boarding community, that's the only place that we can stay at.

Duncan: No I've definitely thought about that one because I've heard that argument expressed that you guys have more access to your home if the dorms were to stay unlocked. But frankly, if I have forgotten something at home, I can– If I have a free period, I can check out and go get it from my house, which you guys are unable to do. If you leave something in your dorm, you're unable to get it for the rest of the day.

Charles: But also think about this: it’s the night to study for an exam because you’re there for your exam tomorrow morning. Then the next morning I have a free for the first period. You’re still very, very tired. You stayed up very late last night. So you should be able to sleep in. Now we can't, we have to be forced to wake up having a very tired body and sleep in the library. Although, according to what I'm hearing right now, you cannot sleep in the library.

Duncan: Yeah. So it's not just kind of an issue of border freedom as an issue of border or mental health, is what you're saying. Okay, so you talked about this already, a lot of the reason for these boarding reforms is that they feel that you do not engage with the day students.So do you think that the social gap between day students and boarders is, you know, is as large as some might suggest and if you do think there is a gap, do you think it's kind of a big issue? 

Charles: First of all, I have a question to ask the school: if they think that we have a big gap between the borders and the students, why doesn't the school allow these students to go into the dorms. Like I mean they can go into the common room. Right. But after five they cannot even go into the common room anymore. So if they want us to engage with the day students why don't they allow the day students to come into the common room and all hang out together. Like the day students, they want to stay. You know after 5 p.m., you know after dinner they still want to come by. Why can’t they come by anymore? 

Duncan: I– yeah, because I mean, since I've come to Springs, they've always kind of encouraged and you know, flaunted that students can stay on campus until like 7 p.m.. But I completely agree. If they're cutting off access to the common room at 5 p.m., they're stifling that connection. 

Charles: Another thing is that, you know, if they want the borders to hang out with the day students, people already have their own fan groups. They have the people that they want to hang out with and the people that they don't want to hang out with. And if they've been in school for so long, of course they already know who they want to hangout with, who they don't want to hang out with. If one of the day students was their best friend, of course they are going to hang out together. But if they don't get along with some of the students then of course they don't hang out with each other. Yeah. So there's no reason to push them– like people choose their own friend group. You cannot push other people to keep hanging out with someone. 

Duncan: You can't force interaction, I see what you're saying. All right, so kind of shifting gears a little from the boarding issue, but, you know, still in the same realm, do you think the administration upholds the rights allowed to students in the Indian Springs Constitution? Do you think the administration upholds student rights? What would be an example… So the opening to either the Read n’ Heed or the Constitution states that Springs believes that its students are reasonably intelligent and capable of, you know, determining the difference between right and wrong. So just based off that statement, which is kind of the general guiding principle for our rules and the Constitution, do you think the administration does a good job holding up that principle, that they think their students are reasonably intelligent people? 

Charles: I would say it depends. Some of the administration people like the teachers, some of them feel very nice, you know, you know, like a lot of teachers are very reasonable. Well, just just to clarify, teachers are faculty. 

Duncan: When I say administration, I mean, people who, outside of teaching classes, have other administrative functions. 

Charles: Okay. So a lot of them are very respectful to us. And I, you know, we, you know, if anything happened between us we can talk about it. ou know, very respectfully. Right. Of course. Like this is working very well, I think. Let me and Dr. Gray, we had an argument last week, and then, you know, as it was very it was very, you know, like, fired up because we were yelling at each other. Because at that time I was trying to fix my club issues because already I talked to multiple teachers, and he's the last teacher to actually talk to. And then after he saw my problem, that my whole club couldn’t go to the model U.N. conference. But then, he dropped it for one or two days and it was almost a deadline, but he still didn't talk to me a lot about it. I was a little worried at the time. Then we had an argument, right? But for Doctor Gray, after we had an argument, the next day, I came up to him and we just had to talk. Yeah, like each of us– of course we did something wrong. Like, it's not that he's fully right or I am fully right. We both are misunderstanding, right? And so when I talked to him and he talked to me about the problem being resolved, now, he likes me, and I like I'm about to go away [to the U.N. conference] soon.

Duncan: I think that’s a great approach to argument in general. Just, you know, always trying to admit your, your own mistakes and just how I'm doing. So that's great. 

Charles: So in this case, in this example, the administration of course, thinks that we're reasonable, intelligent people because they will sit there, be able to sit down with us together and actually talk to us and listen to whatever we said. Right. Because if they don't respect us, then they're not going to listen to whatever reason. Yeah, but a lot of the other times when I talk to teachers or when I try to talk to an administration person, they like whatever you say, they're just not listening. Like, for example, the border issues I was trying to fix out. What. Well it's hard to give like all those like all those stuff that I said just now about the borders like yeah those reasons. But I don't think it really works. Like they just don't care. 

Duncan: So certain issues, for instance boarding, you think there's just there's there's not a lot of wiggle room that you felt from the administration.

Charles: I mean, I thought like Mr. Rowlett is a very nice person. It's just basically the school rules that's restricting and not Mr. Rowlett himself, but about the school rules, like, I think Mr. Rowlett is just someone that the school sends out to give all those rules to the students.

Duncan: Of course, yeah. He’s not the one person responsible.

Charles: So this is just like the general school rules of the administration. People should listen to more people's ideas because if there's so many people in the school all talking about this and they're all annoyed or dissatisfied because of this, that there must be a problem with it. So they should listen to us more about it. And not just only think of their own point of view. 

Duncan: Yeah, that's great because that is another thing that helps: students having the right to express themselves when they feel something is unjust. How do you feel about the amount of power that student government has? As mayor, would you want to expand that power? Kind of keep it the same or, you know, retract that power of our student government?

Charles: Yeah. So basically, so far, I think for the student government, there's not too much information. There's not too much information like, transparency. Because, you know, for example, if we have a student government meeting, I was in student government before, I was a COB. But, you know, like, every time when we have a meeting, people don't know about it. Like, they don't know what we're talking about. 

Duncan: Yeah. No, I experienced that too. 

Charles: Of course you want people to know what that we're talking about, because we're the student government. And the student government is trying to serve the people. It was trying to serve the students. Right? Yes. That's why we formed the student government. Yeah. But if we're trying to serve the student and we don’t tell them what we do every single time, what’s the point of serving them? One of my main ideas is student government transparency. So every time we meet, we can have like a person taking notes for whatever reason. So like what we said in a meeting, you know, we can send out an email to everyone in the school if they want to know what's the information on it. 

Duncan: That's great. Just kind of the debrief of what happens in the moment.

Charles: And I think the student government should have a little more power, because I think so far a lot of the things the student government cannot solve, like you cannot solve by yourself. You still have to talk to multiple teachers, sign multiple to multiple forms. If you want to do something right for example, let's say the student government want the school to, you know, probably add like another sports event or add some, cheerleaders for the athletic teams. Yeah. In this case you have to talk to multiple teachers. You cannot decide on your own in a student government meeting– you still have to talk to Mr. Colvin, Dr. Gray, Mr. Phillips, all those teachers. In order to make this pass. So I think that the government should have a little more power. They should be meeting more frequently with Mr. Schamberger because it's always easier to just directly talk to the head of the school if you want to fix some problem, if you want to take some problems. Right. So you don't have to. I talked to so many teachers that will take a lot of time.

Duncan: No, that's a great point. I would love to see, you know, the student government working, more quickly, like you said, with, you know, a little more power and just working more closely with the administration to really try and make real changes. 

Charles: Like for each student, our meeting, I think people are just, you know, talking about like each commissioner talking about, hey, what this is what we did this week.

Duncan: I completely agree, that was the experience the entire time I was in student government. Yes. It felt so great towards the end of the year when well, not great, but there were a bunch of campaign or election issues with the last election in May, but it felt great to have a student government that was discussing an issue and were trying to get something solved instead of just debriefing.

Charles: So a lot of my plan is to have the suggestion box but better, right? So my suggestion box. So before, you know, like all the mayors and commissioners, they just like suggestion box, right? Yeah. But it's just basically people putting stuff in there and they look at it and then they said, okay, well good. But my suggestion box is different. So the same that I'm thinking about the school is that I think our school has a little bit of a lack of school spirit than other schools. Like, you know, for example, for athletics, our school doesn't have as much people participating and supporting the school as other schools, right? And then last year when I go play tennis in the States, all you had is one chair for ten members. And I was like focused on that. So like all those things like all of those ensures that the school doesn't pay as much attention to the students. And that's why the student doesn't have as much school sports as the. That's the same. So there has to be something pushing it. So I felt like the students like one of the main things that I think is that the students have to love the school first before they support the school. Yeah of course. So as we said the boring issues, the other issues people have, all people have all kind of dissatisfaction about the school. Right. 

So here's my suggestion box. I hope that they can put their dissatisfaction in the strategies in the suggestion box, so I can look through it during the weekend. And a lot of people shares like, you know, similar problems. So I'll put some of my stuff in the direction box, I'll look during the weekend, the most repeated one where we can talk about it during the student government, so we can actually solve people's dissatisfactions and make it and also like, make people like the school year more.

Duncan: Yeah, I think that sounds great. Okay, so moving on from the general, you know, more broad questions specific to you. A lot of people have concerns about a junior running for mayor. You know, typically it's a senior who gets elected. What would you say to those people about why you're as qualified as any other candidate?

Charles: First of all, I just have a general question asking people who have come just to have this concern: first of all, tell me what the previous mayor did, so much that makes them different from a senior than a junior. Like almost every single mayor, I don't see them doing too much stuff to change the school. I mean you know, they of course they benefit the school, but I don't think they mean as much as a big impact or anything to the school. Yeah. But I think if a person is qualified to be a mayor, then like for example, if the person is qualified to be a mayor, they can make great impacts to the school. It doesn't matter which grade they are like probably the the problem that they're concerned about is that a junior is going to make a graduation speech to the seniors, right? Yeah, but what if I just don't make a graduation speech? Then they can choose some candidates, end up seniors, do the graduation speech. But I'm still the one being a senior, but I'm still the one being the senior and helping out the school. As long as I'm the kind of person that can do much more, then now, they can do much more than what I promised, and I can do all I promised, all on my list. Yeah, I can make an impact in a school and make everyone happy. That's a good thing.

Duncan: I completely agree. So you feel like what really makes a mayor is a dedication to change? 

Charles: And to and a dedication to change that. Anything that people are dissatisfied about. 

Duncan: Great. Yeah. Okay. And then one this is more of a personal question just because I found it interesting. You mentioned a chill zone on your platform. What would that look like? 

Charles: Okay I'll explain real quick. Yeah. So, I already talked with Mr. Colvin. Yeah. And the schools, like the schools, like people. And then we're going to buy bean bags. So we're going to put bean bags around the school. And then people during lunch, they can just lay on the beanbags and chill because a lot of people have problems with having a place to stay at lunch. 

Duncan: That's great. So you would have these bean bags outside and inside? 

Charles: Yes. If people read my platform. On my platform there it is. So basically I'm going to put white boards like this. Like on the, on the hallway. So people kind of start going on there or, you know, write some positive languages. And then people are, you know, people can because right now, satisfied I just feel happy. I like, oh, I'm just bring in, bring in some artistic inspiration. And then the school has like a, like a whole school speaker, right? Yes. I want the school to play like jazz music, chill music during lunch, you know.

Duncan: Oh I like that.

Charles: imagine me on the beanbags at lunch and I listen to them and listening to the like, jazz music and playing Clash Royale. 

Duncan: That sounds very therapeutic, I can’t lie. Well I think that’s all for today, thank you.

Charles: Thank you very much.