by Alex Melnick
Arts & Life Editor

Trey Vernaci is a busy man. So busy, in fact, that it took until midnight on a  Thursday to meet with him. I sat wearily in his messy fraternity room as President Vernaci, filled with boundless energy, chattered nonstop to me about his ideas. He paced from place to place, fixing or adjusting small knick knacks around him and kept suspiciously trying to clarify what the purpose of this article was. (It’s transparency, Trey. You need to be transparent to lead a student body.) After I finally convinced him that I wasn’t learning his schedule so that I could trick him into going on a date with me,  (I was and I am) President Vernaci finally told me what exactly it takes to be SBA president day to day.

“Let me preface this with the fact that the average day for me is very planned out,” he started, finally calming down enough to sit on his bed and be interviewed. “I have what I’m doing every day in my calendar.” (He does, and it’s crazy.) Vernaci works 15 to 20 hours in the school’s IT department, and is something of a whiz kid. If something’s broken beyond all repair, you better call President Vernaci. (A memorable moment was when Anthropology/Religious Studies senior Merritt Corrigan’s computer completely broke down the night before her Honors project was due—Vernaci was able to fix it. No one knows how.) Every Monday, Vernaci meets with Brittany Paxton, who is the SBA advisor, and they get lunch while discussing the night’s upcoming senate meeting. After his lunch meeting, Trey spends time either at work, or prepping for the senate meeting or any committee meetings that day. SBA senate meets at 9:15 p.m. every Monday, where Vernaci presides over the proceedings and tries to make his constituents’ voices heard during this time. (At some point, I assume he sleeps, although I cannot confirm this.) On Tuesday nights, President Vernaci attends the rules committee meetings, and on Wednesdays Vernaci consults with Dean Brit Katz. At nine every Wednesday, President Vernaci attends the Student Body Association Executive Board Meeting.  When not attending meetings, President Vernaci works on either his political science or Spanish classes, or his Honors project on the progression of religious freedom’s relation to civil liberties and party lines. “If I have down time, I’m working on my Honors project or other random meetings…. That’s the life,” he says. Vernaci is also active in his fraternity, Lambda Chi Alpha, and also takes guitar lessons at the school.  If any of the students at Millsaps College have any comments or concerns, he highly urges them to contact him at vernaaj@millsaps.edu.