Know Your Candidates, FEDS Elections Coming Up

FEDS annual elections are held in the winter term for election of positions starting in summer for the next 12 months. Campaigning period is under full sway these days and candidates are doing their best to convince the student body of the sincerity of their words and are confidently answering questions from the media (Imprint, MathNews, and Iron Warrior) during debates and forums. <i>The Iron Warrior attended<i> attended one such debate held on January 29^th at 12:30 pm in SLC Great Hall. It was presided by the current VP Administration and Finance, Chris Neal.

Of the positions being elected, of interest to Engineering students are President, Vice President Administrative & Finance, Vice President Internal (Executive Positions), and At-large Senator (Senator Positions). In the Executive Positions, Nicholas Soave (Geography & Environmental Management) has been acclaimed as the Vice President Education. Engineering Student Council position has been acclaimed by Jordan Liu, Praveen Arichandran, and Trevor Jenkins.

Candidates for President are Allan Babor, Bradley Moggach, Jessey van Amerom, and Matthew Colphon. Allan, an Independent studies student is running for re-election as President. His slogan is ‘Leader who Listens’ and he commits to continue addressing students’ concern as he has done in his past term such as improving athletics and initiating the Northdale development project. Brad is a Political Sciences and has served as ASU President. His focus is to improve student experience on campus by construction of a student service complex and also by preserving the green on campus. Jessey , a Philosophy student has had experience with FOC and Bombshelter supervision and believes in outreach to students to understand their concerns by having digests and blogs that all students can contribute to. Matthew is a Science and Business student who has volunteered with FOC, and SBSA. He believes in bringing more relevant issues out of students to the administration. He also wants to redefine the roles of councillors and work together with departments to better represent the students. As expected President debates were the lengthiest. Most of the questions asked were in relation to Babor’s decisions in his role as the current President and he was accused of convincing students of administration’s message rather than relaying students’ concern to the administration and of unnecessarily favouring his peers, which he rejected by providing due references.

Candidates for VP Finance are Sarah Cook and Matthew Waller. Sarah Cook is a student in Business and Human Resource Management. She is the current FEDS VP Internal and has also served as acting VP Finance. She has also served as the Chapters. Matthew Waller is a Political Science student who is currently serving as FEDS Board Member and Student Councillor. Most of the questions directed at these candidates focussed on Bombshelter Pub as it has been going into deficit. Waller was also accused of negligence as Chair of Arts Finance  – he replied by saying that the miscommunication which led to that situation should not be taken as a reflection of his behaviour.

Candidates for VP Internal are Nikki Best and Jenna Goodhand. Nikki Best is a Legal Studies and Human Resources Management, who has served as ASU VP Academic, Legal Student Society President and Residence Don. Nikki’s emphasis was on improvement of student services, such as counselling and more accessibility for physically disabled students. Nikki is running on the ticket of Team Yellow with Sarah Cook and Bradley Moggach. Jenna Goodhand is an Arts/Business student, running on Team Everyone ticket. Her belief is that FEDS can improve its experience through student feedback and representing students is the gist of being VP Internal.

Candidates for At-large Senator are Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, Reemah Khalid  and Yousif Al-Khder. Aboyeji was not present at the Media Forum but had sent a written speech which outlined his ___ to provide more resources to the student body. Reemah is currently Arts Councillor, Arts Senator and Student Ambassador. In her answers to the media questions she said that she would keep students involved through various media outlets and one-to-one interaction to ensure that she receives student input as much as possible. Yousif is highly involved in the Engineering Society and has represented UW in its satellite Dubai campus. He believes that in order to make students’ voice strong on Senate students should build a stronger relationship with Faculty.

I will highly encourage you all to visit http://vote.feds.ca/ and collect information about the candidates before you make your decision. If you have any questions you should attend The Annual Executive Debates and Forum on February 8^th, 3:00 pm at SLC Great Hall. Polling period starts on February 9^th and ends on February 11^th. Remember these people represent you so choose wisely!