Friday, February 15, was an important time for the Federation of Students (Feds). The newly elected executives were to be announced, dictating the direction and ambitions of Feds for the next year. There was much speculation, but in the end, Team Yellow was victorious in all four executive positions.
Each of the elected executive ran with a platform during the campaign period. These platforms outlined their goals, ambitions, and plans for Feds should they be elected. Now that Team Yellow has taken the helm, it is time to reflect on the promises that were made during the campaign period to ensure that we as students hold the executive accountable to them. To help in this endeavour, the key promises from each executive’s campaign platform have been simplified. For full platform outlines, visit voteteamyellow.com
President: David Collins
Promote and improve Feds’ commitment to open consultation. This includes a plan to use the Feds research department to increase efficiency and transparency of the organization.
Advocate for a campus that respects and values differences amongst others. David plans to continue developing the campus student-safety plan started by the VP Internal this year as well as encourage the University to increase priority of the creation of the Equity Office.
Ensure that the current student and commercial service offerings by Feds are considered relevant to students. New metrics are to be developed to measure the success of the current services.
Ensure that Feds makes decisions that reflect a high degree of consciousness toward environmental sustainability and the social well-being of students.
VP Administration and Finance: Natasha Pozega
Continue the efforts of the past VPAF to ensure student investments and ideas don’t go to waste. Natasha will continue implementing the digital signage initiative, create a long term action plan for the Used Book Store, and investigate a new text messaging system which would act as a tool for students to conveniently text Feds with any issues they have.
Put in place new customer service standards at all of Feds’ commercial services. Improved training for service staff will be implemented. Natasha wants to also investigate having meal plan dollars used at Feds services.
Develop a comprehensive sponsorship strategy to subsidize the cost of Feds Welcome Week and Frost Week events.
VP Education: Adam Garcia
Ensure that student money is well-utilized with the University. Adam wants to work towards a new fee agreement with the University which includes a new ancillary fee agreement that gives students a mechanism to determine fee levels. He will also advocate for a multi-year tuition freeze.
Ensure that Waterloo classrooms are adapting to new technologies, using new learning strategies, and course evaluations go towards improving teaching quality. Adam wants to initiate an advocacy campaign called “Fix My Lecture”, advocate for a centralized course evaluations process, and work with the Teaching Fellows and the Centre for Teaching Excellence to advocate for a peer evaluation model of instructor evaluations.
Ensure that Waterloo is a liveable city for young graduates. Adam wants to work with stakeholders and partners from the Town & Gown Committee of the City of Waterloo to begin the development of a city-wide student employment and graduate retention strategy.
VP Internal: Devin Drury
Work with Campus Life staff and students to define what a club and a service is to ensure that each is effectively serving students. A “Service Framework” will be created to define what requirements a service must meet to be considered a service and not just a club. Devin will consult Service Coordinators to create a “Customer Service Standard” for each service.
Increase promotions and awareness of clubs, services, and societies and what they provide. Devin wants adequate and informative signage within the Student Life Centre, encourage standalone websites for clubs, and will support Natasha with the digital signage initiative.
Increase collaboration between student groups, and increase event continuity and success by documenting best practices. Devin wants to create a publicly accessible database of events and activities run by clubs, services, and societies to provide information for future events.
Increase communication with volunteers in the Campus Life department to promote easier access to the Executive resource. Devin will utilize an improved research department to solicit feedback from students and utilize the feedback to critically assess existing services.
What Team Yellow has planned for Feds is both practical and attainable. They want more transparent processes, improved services, better allocated resources, proactive advocacy, and increased consultation; all in the best interest of students. Before we go around saying Feds does nothing for us, be sure to take the time to become informed, and you will soon realise they do much more for us than the running stereotype makes us believe.
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