What’s the going rate for a Student Government president these days?
Apparently $500. That was the amount Danny Carvajal sold for Tuesday, the night before his inauguration, during the Association of Commuter Students’ charity auction at the Rathskeller.
Carvajal, who was still president-elect at the time, appeared towards the end of the event and was greeted with a loud applause. Once the bidding began, the asking price quickly shot to $200. Bidding went back and forth between two parties at that point, shocking the audience as the numbers climbed higher and higher.
“I am not worth that amount of money,” Carjaval said in a phone interview with The Miami Hurricane following his inaguration the next evening. “I don’t know how to react to that.
“I was up there and I was flattered, but I felt bad that someone was paying that much money to go out on a date with me,” he continued, also saying that he was embarrassed.
“At the same time, the money is going to a very good cause.”
The winning bid came from Vanessa Alonso, a senior and broadcast journalism major filming the event for UMTV.
The winning bid far exceeds the previous high of $300, set at last year’s auction.
“I just did it for charity,” Alonso said after the event.
The auction, now in its sixth year, raised approximately $2,000 for the Orphanage Project, a charity started by UM alumnus Billy Bludgus that focuses on building an orphanage in Tanzania.
Compiled by Matthew Bunch and Greg Linch