Max Nitke and Grant Glazier want to fix CMU student isolation

Max Nitke, a first-year in Tepper, is running for student body president alongside vice presidential candidate Grant Glazier, fellow first-year and College of Fine Arts student.

He was motivated to run by his personal experience being new to this school. “I hated my first semester, I wasn’t able to find friends, I was having trouble reaching out,” Nitke explains, saying that there are “some changes that could be made to how the way that students are housed and how communities are formed.”

Trying to combat the isolation that can come with being an incoming first-year ended up shaping the platform that Nitke is running on. Nitke proposes that to solve some of these issues, Carnegie Mellon should consider implementing the housing “Entry System,” similar to programs at Princeton University and Williams College, where small, social groups and common spaces are formed in freshman housing facilities. This would allow Carnegie Mellon students to form friendships across schools and genders, in smaller groups than the large, mostly single gender groups that meet currently.

Further, Nitke states that “I want the supplies for our first-year students to be almost entirely free,” mentioning that it is difficult for first-years to secure jobs to pay for school material. Vice presidential candidate Grant Glazier said that “I feel that me and Max really even each other out, him coming from the school of business and me coming from the school of art.” He continued, “there's a lot going on on all sides of the school,” saying that as vice president he would do his best to listen to all of these sides.

When gathering for a group picture with the other candidates, Nitke noted that he was disappointed at the lack of diversity, but said that he hoped they would all do their best to represent the whole school.