The name Carter-William Palek might ring a bell for several students across campus. Or as Palek himself puts it in his Twitter bio--you're probably his cousin.
You might know Palek, senior in political science and business from Madison, Ala., from Camp War Eagle, Eagle Eye TV, the on-campus residence halls, the Rec Center or his Twitter page. But don't make the mistake of calling him Carter.
"That's my father's name," Palek jokes, as he prefers to go by Carter-William.
Palek's made himself a recognizable face on campus through his involvement over the years in several organizations.
"I definitely keep myself busy," Palek said. "I'm the head counselor for both Camp War Eagle and High School Leadership Conference, but I'm also an RA in the Village, a Group Fitness Instructor at the Rec and the former head of Eagle Eye TV."
With so many responsibilities, Palek said there's always a job to be done, but he wouldn't have it any other way.
"To answer your next question, no I don't get a lot of sleep," Palek said. "Having so many different jobs is fun because it brings you into contact with a lot of different people you wouldn't ever run into, and it automatically gives you something in common that you share. At his point, almost all of my friends are people I met through some campus involvement. I'm never just like 'oh hey this guy I know.' It's always like 'Oh we spent all summer together, he's one of my CWEple.'"
With approximately 2,000 Twitter followers and counting, Palek's known for his humorous posts. However, he said he's not sure how he grew such a following.
"The Twitter thing sort of started my freshmen year," Palek said. 'My suitemates and I were potluck roommates and I kept a chronicle of all of our awkward interactions on Twitter, and those tweets became really popular and it sort of just grew exponentially from there."
Palek said he believes sharing his stories as an RA has resulted in some of his most popular posts.
"A lot of times I tweet weird stories that happen to me as an RA, and I think people really appreciate those because it offers a very behind the scenes look at what can very possibly be the strangest job on campus," Palek said. "Who else knows what to do when someone poops in the washing machine? Answer, dump in a whole load of fabric softener, run it on hot and call maintenance."
When asked if this increase in attention has changed his behavior on social media, Palek said it's definitely made him think twice before posting.
"When I started meeting people and realizing they already knew me from the Twitter account is when I started trying to be more careful with what I put out there," Palek said. "I interviewed for one position on campus and at the end of the interview the President told me they all followed me on twitter and thought I was funny, and it was a little creepy. People know a lot more about you than you ever do them."
Palek's attended his fair share of callouts and said he's learned a lot from the time of his first callouts for FLP to now.
"I was so nervous and so tense that I wouldn't get it and, spoiler alert-- I didn't," Palek said. "I was pretty upset at first, but looking back that dose of reality, that you won't always succeed in everything, is exactly what I needed so early on in my college experience. For too many people, that's a lesson they learn too late.
Palek said he thinks some people learn too late in life that they can't always succeed.
"I've been to a lot of callouts since then, some where I got it and some where I didn't," Palek said. "I'll tell anyone who will listen that even as involved as I am I've been rejected at callouts seven times. In fact, I didn't even make Camp War Eagle the first time I tried out. Even when you don't get it it's a good learning experience. Every failure or success you encounter grows you as a person."
Not being used to having strangers knowing him by his online presence, Palek said he's found himself in hot water before.
"With a large following too I have to be conscious about who the tweet will get back around to," Palek said. "I've gotten in trouble before by my supervisors for sharing an RA anecdote that in hindsight I really shouldn't have put on social media. But it's also been really cool to see what a voice social media can give you. Especially in a place like Auburn."
One way Palek said he's been able to voice his opinion through social media to effect change is in regards to the football ticketing policy put into place this past fall.
"Like a lot of students this fall, I was not a big fan of the new student athletic ticket policy," Palek said. "It was well-meaned but poorly implemented and I was very vocal about that on Twitter and always got a lot of engagement when I brought it up."
Palek said he began to see reforms take shape as he and several others voiced their opinions on Twitter.
"I think it's easy to dismiss someone's verbal opinion but when that opinion is staring back at you with 1,000 retweets and tons of bad PR is a lot harder to ignore," Palek said. "It can be very uniting too. Whenever major events occur on campus, severe weather, an unbelivale victory, a rabin racoon AU Alert, people instinctively jump to social media, it really helps build an ever larger sense of community at Auburn there what there already is naturally."
As for what he'd like to check off his list of things to do in his time at Auburn, Palek said
"Well I've actually never ridden a Tiger Transit--I've always lived on campus," Palek said. "Maybe go to Fat Daddy's?"
Though there are thing's he'd like to do for fun while he's still on The Plains, Palek said his greatest accomplishments can't be checked off on a list of tasks.
"In all seriousness though, I think the biggest sense of accomplishment comes from knowing the people under you in an organization are are ready to take over the reigns when you leave," Palek said. "That's sorta where I am with CWE right now. I and the other head counselors have spent so long training the new counselors, the last thing I really want to do before I leave is see how they grow into their own leaders through this coming summer. Oh, and also try the strawberry lemonade at Toomer's. I hear good things.
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