Hopper Akins: Mayoral Candidate Interview

Hopper: It's good to be here. How are you doing? 

Duncan: I’m good, thank you.

Hopper: I'd like to say I'm a big fan of the word post. I have worked there every year I’ve been at Springs and there's a few clubs that do more work than y’all

Duncan: Oh, thank you very much. We're trying to be more active. As you know, this interview will hopefully demonstrate. So you have made a big point of standing up to the administration and kind of advocating for boarder rights. Do you feel it is more important to protect boarders, freedom or encourage their engagement in the community? 

Hopper: So generally, in specific cases, I do want freedom and that's right, because our motto is learning through living. You can't learn through living without learning through mistakes. A great example of this is it is pretty– Most reasons some people would assume that staying in your room all day, not going out and making friends during lunch, hiding in a room during the whole day is a mistake, a bad decision: you're going to be worse off in the long run. So then you might say, oh well, it's a good thing that the administration is banning people from going to their rooms during lunch. But that doesn't give them the room to make mistakes. That's just saying, get up, get dressed, go out to a class, you can go back later. Just telling them what to do and when to do it. That's not learning. That's just them following a script. Very military, very regimented. And that's not what we are at Indian Springs.

We are independent thinkers who are supposed to move how we– do what we want, basically within reason, so long as… Basically freedom to make mistakes, as long as you can't seriously harm yourself. So that's why I disagree with the new boarder policies.

Duncan: I think that makes total sense. So you would rather the boarders learn through their own experience than sort of be guided by the administration to make the correct decisions.

Hopper: Guided is much better than what they’re doing; they’re forcing them right now. They’re not being guided out of the dorms, they’re being kicked out. The dorms are locked in the day: they cannot enter. Like if you ever go to Goodrich or Hess at 3:20 in the afternoon, you'll see a crowd of boarders waiting outside. It's ridiculous, and it honestly makes me even more upset when I think about the fact that they paid thousands of dollars for their rooms. 

Duncan: Oh, more than any other student. 

Hopper: Yes. So much money for these rooms that they’ve been banned from for the day. Even if I left my bag in my room, even if I could get it back, it’s a whole hassle

Duncan: Thank you. Okay, so kind of continuing on the boarder trend, do you feel like there is a social gap between the day students and the boarders? And if so, do you think that gap needs to be addressed?

Hopper: I cannot speak from my personal experience. I mean, I've only been to school once. In my experience, I have a lot of boarder friends. I feel there isn't too much of a gap between us. We find ways to hang out with them because that's what friends do. I can imagine, though, that not every boarder feels this way. And of course, I wouldn't know those boarders.You know, any gap that exists between boarders and day students needs to be solved through, like, events and incentives rather than forcing them to come outside. Yeah. 

Duncan: So, kind of staying on that topic of encouragement, you'd rather, you know, have them want to engage rather than just force them to engage.

Hopper: Yes.

Duncan: I think that makes total sense. Okay. So you also in your platform talk a lot about the constitutional rights of the Indian Springs student, not, you know, the American Constitution, but the Indian Springs Constitution. Do you think the administration upholds those rights?

Hopper: by and large, yes. The administration by and large does a good job running our school. So they also have an inherent authority over us to make rules like that. Like we are not– this isn't a real democracy and they can't like, infringe upon our rights or how much we have privileges. We are just students. But we do need to remember that when I go out on my anti-administration rhetoric it is because I do disagree with them on some things and those things are not going to be changed by sitting around and waiting for it.So, in cases when the whole body is more or less united about a change, it it becomes pretty clear that the administration needs to make that change. And that's what I want to push for, making those changes.

Duncan: So with your feelings that, you know, sometimes don't align with the administration, how would you feel if someone labeled you, let's say, just intentionally contrarian?

Hopper: I am contrarian with the administration on just a couple of very key issues. Generally I believe the student government should have a little more autonomy. Generally, I think boarders should have more freedom. Generally, I think less rules is better because learning through living, learning through mistakes. Of course we need rules to prevent us from harming ourselves. Of course, anything that's going to seriously impact our future we need rules against, but little things– a lot of the rules we have these days just aren’t necessary. That's the stuff I disagree on. Intentionally contrarian sounds like I just disagree with the administration anytime I get a chance to, which is not how I feel at all.

Duncan: You've also talked a lot about expanding student government. How do you feel about the amount of power the student government has? 

Hopper: I think that the government has more power than it thinks it does. I have attended a lot of student government meetings. Some people are very outspoken and some people get a lot done. Those people are my favorites in student government. But a lot of times I see people just waiting for someone else to talk. And so, yeah, like, just asking Mr. Colvin what they should do in Student Government.That's not power. That's not independence. We are the voice of the students, and the very rather limited powers that we are given we should exercise. And that's what I want to do. And as to what I say about expanding student government, that just gives more voices in government, which is already good. More representation in student government makes that government more engaged with the school; makes a better community. And at the same time having more people makes student government inherently more effective because the mayor can only be in one place at once.The mayor whose powers in the Constitution are– a lot of them are symbolic, mostly. They do need student government, but since the current members are elected, those members also have a great deal of agency on their own. But the mayor does have the ability to influence policies by just compromising and negotiating agreements with the administration and the students.They are the single voice most representative of the students, just because that's how they're kind of elected as the leader of the students. And, they can only be in one place at once. So by having people in the government to listen to the mayor, I can just get more things done because my platform is rather extensive.

Duncan: So, your platform is pretty extensive, what promise–

Hopper: Because you read it?

Duncan: Yes I read it, of course. What promise are you most interested in fulfilling?

Hopper: Number one is the boarder thing. Number one is repealing the boarder thing, without a doubt.

Duncan: All right, well I think that’s all we have time for.

Hopper: Thank you very much.

Duncan: Thank you for joining us.