Interview with SGA President Paul Alois

November 30, 2009 | Observer Staff | Comments 0

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By Scott Abrahams

Paul Alois is a second year M.A. student concentrating in International Law and is the president of the Student Government Association (SGA). He sat down with the Observer to talk about SGA, SAIS, and even some things that do not start with ’s’ and are abbreviated.

Scott: (in Chinese) So, I hear you speak Chinese.
Paul: (in Chinese) Yes, I took the proficiency test last semester.
S: (not in Chinese) Did you live in China? Where besides DC have you lived before? 
P: I never actually lived in China. My dad was in the U.S. Foreign Service, so I grew up in Latin America and Italy and Germany. And Florida was my one place in the U.S.
S: Can you speak Spanish?
P: It’s been a while, so my speaking is rusty, but I can mostly understand what people are saying.
S: In addition to being a first year representative last year, you also founded the Amnesty International Club at SAIS.
P: I worked at Amnesty International before I came here. Every university in DC had a chapter but SAIS. We didn’t have any clubs related to human rights, which was something I thought we should rectify.
S: Why did you decide to get involved in student government?
P: SAIS was my top choice program. I was not at all into my high school or college, but was really excited to be at my top choice. I wanted to get as immersed in the program as possible. Also, I worked in DC for two years before that, doing research at a think tank. That work was very academic, and although that is great, I realized that being effective also requires some of the more mundane stuff, like meetings and budgets. I thought that SGA was a good way to enhance that skill set, and it has.
S: Do you have a title you prefer? For example, there was Alexander the Great, Hagar the Horrible…?
P: I like El Jefe. In my Chinese class, I told my teacher to call me Chairman For Life.
S: Do you have a leadership role model?
P: I do. In War and Peace, Tolstoy writes about General Kutuzov. I like his management style. He accepts that 90% of what goes on he can’t control. He accepts that and focuses on the 10% he can.
S: What’s the 10% of SGA you can control?
P: It’s different every time. 
S: What are the perks of being president?
P: The main perk is that you get to really be completely immersed in the school, the culture, the people, and learning about the administration. For me it’s a challenge, not in the academic sense, but more of a challenge organizing things and people.
S: What’s an example of a challenge you’ve faced?
P: I’ve spent a lot of time working on this, which I hadn’t anticipated: the number of clubs this year is bigger than ever. I think that five years ago there weren’t any student clubs at all, and now there are over 35, and coordinating all of that is pretty challenging. This is the first year that non career clubs have to share happy hours. Also, funding for clubs comes out of the SGA budget, so our budget this year is lower than before.
S: What have you had to cut back on as a result?
P: We haven’t had to cut back on anything planned, but a lot of spending in the past has been on an ad hoc basis, which we won’t really be able to do now.
S: How do you balance your SGA work with your academic workload?
P: I put academics first, so if I had to decide between SGA work or class work, that’s the way I would go, but it hasn’t ever gotten to that point.
S: What has been your favorite SGA memory so far?
P: Last year, the presidential inauguration was the day before the first day of classes in spring semester. We had an inaugural ball here in Kenney that was a great time. People went down to the mall during the day, got nicely dressed up, then came back here for good food, good drinks and good times.
S: How about this year? What’s an event that you’re really excited about?
P: On September 25, we’re having a joint happy hour with the Georgetown School of Foreign Service. The money from that will be used to fund another joint event in the spring. I’m really hoping that this can become an annual thing to build a better relationship between the schools.
S: You’ve lived in Latin America and Europe, and worked for a think tank, Amnesty International, and the World Bank, and are now at SAIS. Where do you go from there?
P: I’m hoping to move to New York next year. There are a couple of PhD programs in political science I’m interested in. I’m married, and my wife really wants to go do her residency in New York.
S: Are you thinking of going into academia?
P: I haven’t decided yet. I’d like to go into teaching, but I’m not sure about a tenure track position at a university. The thought of teaching 200 18 year-olds in a lecture hall is not appealing. You may as well just put that up on YouTube. I really liked working at the World Bank, and I wouldn’t mind going back to work there and teaching some classes at night.
S: You could be a professor at SAIS.
P: Exactly.
S: Finish this sentence: “Thanks to the SGA, SAIS students…”
P: Get cheap beer every Friday.
S: What’s a fun fact about you that you’d like to share with the student body?
P: I love, no, I’m addicted to ping pong. So, if anyone wants a game, just come find me and I’ll be up for it.
S: Do you want to play?
P: Now? Sure.

Scott Abrahams is a first year M.A. candidate in China Studies.

Filed Under: September 2009