For the first time in its 318-year history, Yale University will have a black student body president. 19-year-old junior Kahlil Greene of Germantown, Maryland, ran uncontested in last year's election for Yale College Council president. His term begins when the semester starts Wednesday.
Kahlil recently spoke with All Things Considered host Bill Buchner. Below is a transcript of their conversation.
Kahlil, thank you for joining us on All Things Considered. So, here we are at the starting line of a new semester in just a few days. How does it feel to be Yale’s first-ever black student body president?
I’d say that I’m looking forward to the year. I feel this summer has been kind of wild, and there’s been a lot of publicity surrounding the election. So I think it’s a great way of building up a platform, so I’m very grateful for all of that, and I’m very excited to go into the year.
There had been incidents involving student-on-student racial profiling that made headlines last year at the university. What stigmas and prejudice have you witnessed on campus?
I’m not sure which events you’re referring to specifically, but I’d say, what I think we’re focusing on this year in terms at the YCC, is very much to finding solutions to any problems that could happen on campus. As it concerns students of color, there’s a lot of resources that Yale has, like cultural centers for example. I think what we’re trying to do is, in terms of my administration, what my goals are, are to just bolster those resources and make sure that everyone feels included and that they belong on Yale’s campus.
And how will you go about doing this?
So there’s a lot of different ways that we increase resources for students. I think the first thing that we want to focus on is making sure that, like I said the cultural centers that are instituting things at Yale are as effective as they can be. I think after that, we’re just going to make sure we’re listening to student voices and concerns, and putting those in forming policies from student input and pushing those.
In the past few years, the Yale College Council has done work with diversity, equity and inclusion and so has Yale with this specific initiative called “Belonging at Yale,” which our administrators are putting up. I think the goals that we have there are just making sure that everyone feels included through specific initiatives where resources are given, maybe advisory, maybe through mentorship and of course, making sure see themselves as leaders on campus, to make sure that they belong and also included in these campus organizations.
Well, graduation is just two years away for you. What’s the next stop? Where do you go from here?
After graduation, there’s definitely a lot of options. I think the main thing is that I might continue with my education, but I think after graduation, I probably want to work. I know, hopefully next summer, I will work with the Boys and Girls Club of America, which is something I was a part of in my youth. I think after that, seeing how that experience pans out, continue with some sort of professional experience after college and then hopefully going back to graduate school. So whether that be law school or business school, I’m still deciding at the moment, but I think that’s the path forward.
Yale University’s first black student body president, Kahlil Greene, thank you for speaking with us and good luck at school this year.
