Q&A with SBP-elect Peter Flemming: What's in store

Financial District, NEW YORK—Student Body President-elect Peter Flemming ('14) has been preparing for the 2013-14 school year. In an interview with the Empire State Tribune, he talked about his plans for the future and what he’s already doing for the student body.

What is your vision for King’s?

"I like to think of the vision as both [Robert] Jackson and [Andy] Mills do, and their views complement each other. Jackson is very much, 'The vision of King's is to develop and educate a whole student who can be a whole citizen. Men and women who graduate are men and women of integrity in the workplace.' So they're well-rounded and well-read. But from Mills' perspective also incredibly competitive in the workplace, so the practical skills are there too. At the same time Mills spoke a lot about King's being a Christian institution and standing for those Christian values."

What do you want to change or encourage?

"We're never going to be perfect and we're definitely not there. Hopefully I can encourage students to add to King’s... and rather than being a voice and than commenting on what King's is and where we're going, I can really be involved in building this community and building this institution. Improving comes from building up rather than striving to critique."

What are things you'd build on?

"The communication structure of the school between students and administration. For example, I met with Sam [Tran] and Dr. Jackson the other day and we started the conversation about where there are areas between the Provost's Office and the students that are lacking communication, and how the two of us, meaning me and Jackson, can improve on that next year.

"I've been meeting with Mills as well, talking about continuing to build King’s as a school that has an incredible reputation in the city--just keep pushing the network for the business department of King’s, keep pushing internships, career services stuff--so that people are exposed to King’s students and understand what a competitive force we are, especially in the Christian world, especially in the city."

What else are you doing to prepare for next year?

"The biggest thing right now is trying to find work I can already do, so that the administrators I'm already working with start to know that I'm here. I'm building that relationship aspect and helping administrators transition from asking for Sam's help to asking for my help.

"I've also been getting my face out there to the student body through vision week and the video Sam and I did. I want to ease the student body into my... dominion, tyranny, whatever, presidency I guess."

What have you been doing in Council meetings?

"Over the past few Council meetings I've been more attentive to how Sam runs them."

There has been a lot of talk about the development of spiritual life at King's. What do you consider to be your role in that effort?

"I'm going to be very involved in it, but [Eric] Bennett is taking over spiritual life at King’s. We looked for a director of spiritual life for a while and couldn't find anyone to foot the bill, so Bennett was asked to take over, and he prayerfully considered and accepted. So he's doing great work—he basically put together a task force team of different spiritual life projects.

"Mine project is actually fall retreat for the student body, so I’m working on that. I don't know all the practical aspects of what that task force is doing yet, but there are a lot of people who are working on spiritual life, and they'll be taking initiative this semester or next either to re-strengthen our past traditions or to create brand new ones. So I’m excited to see what that looks like."