Lloyd '06 wins respect as leader

With three back-to-back terms as class president under his belt, adjectives like "popular" and "charismatic" come to mind when describing Chris Lloyd '06. In other words, "as far as Princeton goes, he's an important guy," said Lloyd's fellow Honor Committee member Bennett Glassman '08.

"He knows everybody," said Michele Jannos, administrative assistant in the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students. "He's like the mayor of his class."

It wasn't always that way. Lloyd ran for class president as a freshman at the encouragement of a friend, despite having no experience in his high school's student government. After losing, he dabbled in a variety of extracurricular activities.

"For the rest of the year, I was trying out lots of different activities. I tried out for Bodyhype [and] didn't get that, which was sad even though I'd never danced before. I got involved with the Princeton Justice project," he said.

The following year, he ran for class president again. This time, he was victorious.

"I talked to a lot of friends and let them know what I was thinking, bounced ideas off of them, and they thought, 'Oh, you could do a really good job, and I'd be happy to support you,' " he said.

He ran again for junior class president, won and ran unopposed for senior class president.

Lloyd, who is openly gay, said that his sexuality has not really affected his role as class president.

"It's an important and crucial part of my identity but it's not really what defines me — I want to be defined by the hard work and dedication that I put in. It's sort of unfair almost that I constantly have to be put into this framework," Lloyd said.

Glassman said it "speaks very highly of Princeton as a community in that there are no qualms about electing a gay class president." Even so, he said, "The fact that he's gay comes completely second to the fact that he's a great guy and a great class president."

Lloyd did run into one electoral road bump when he ran for junior class president and heard that one of his opponents made a derogatory statement about his sexual orientation. Lloyd, who was already open about his sexuality, said, "It's hard to explain what it feels like to know that the next morning your sexuality's going to be all over the Daily Princetonian for a scandal that was beyond your control."

Though his opponent made him uncomfortable, Lloyd said, "If I could be out and still carry on like a normal person and be a central player in everything that I do on campus, maybe someone in the closet will think that it's ok for them to come out too."

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Lloyd said his friends helped him get through the experience. "The most important thing about Princeton is the friendships that you build," he said.

Indeed, Lloyd is "friends with a lot of people, but he's not fake when he does it," said Eric Remijan '06. "Every single picture he's in, he tends to be in the center."

As a senior who was sophomore class president, Lloyd is also responsible for chairing the Honor Committee. He finds chairing the committee to be very rewarding, mostly because he gets to meet and work with "some of the smartest, most thoughtful people on campus."

In class government, some of his accomplishments to date include setting up events surrounding the past presidential election and setting up Princetonclassgear.com.

Lloyd became interested in business after working on the website. As a result, he abandoned his plans to major in the Wilson School and attend law school. Instead, he is majoring in history and plans on pursuing a career in investment banking, which he finds "really exciting ... there's always a lot going on."

His experiences as president — notably the hours spent crafting eye-catching emails, planning study breaks and events, and sitting on the Honor Committee — will certainly come in handy as he prepares for the work world.

"It's very hard, the hours are very tough, but I'm used to [it]," he said.