Tag: ASFA

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Who wants to be a CEO?

The Arts and Science Federation of Associations is searching for candidates to act as chief electoral officer in their next general election, but the controversy surrounding the resignation of their previous CEO has left students feeling hesitant to step up to the plate.

ASFA VP internal Schubert Laforest indicated at last Thursday’s council meeting that it has been “very difficult” to entice people to apply for the position in the wake of ASFA’s Oct. 12 and 13 byelections in which then-CEO Marvin Cidamon was found to have committed several electoral violations. Ballots were then required to be recounted in order to verify who won the elections and Cidamon ultimately resigned.

“I think that might have turned off a lot of people,” said Laforest, who is urgently trying to find a new CEO to avoid a repeat of these “technical hiccups” and begin planning for ASFA’s general elections, which are tentatively set for next February.

Laforest has so far received one response to the job opening. However, the potential candidate in question decided to drop out and not apply for the position just before the council meeting.

Cidamon’s election report, presented at council by Laforest, listed the overall cost of the October byelections as $4,477. According to this report, Cidamon himself received a docked pay of $350 for his services as CEO, though some council members expressed concerns over whether the former CEO received any money at all considering the violations.

“Originally the number was going to be $250,” said ASFA president Alex Gordon, describing the $350 as “a middle ground” decided upon by the financial committee. “It’s less than minimum wage.”

According to Gordon, the committee took into account the amount of work that Cidamon put into organizing the byelections, coupled with the fact that the hour-to-work ratio for the position is less than minimum wage.

“Regardless of what happened, we still should recognize that he did get the election done at the end of the day,” said VP finance Laura Gomez.

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Students vote to strike on Nov. 10

Students filled the Hall building auditorium, raising their hands to vote in favour of striking on Nov. 10.
Students filled the Hall building auditorium, raising their hands to vote in favour of striking on Nov. 10.

Graduate students and arts and science undergraduates voted in favour of an academic strike mandate for Nov. 10, the day of the province-wide protest against tuition hikes, at a special general meeting held last Thursday.
Out of the 570 students present at the SGM, six undergraduate and two graduate students voted against the mandate and one student abstained, according to ASFA’s records.
“This is our opportunity as Concordia students and as an English school in Montreal to show that we have a school spirit strong enough to stand together united with one message,” said Concordia Student Union VP external and projects Chad Walcott. “That message is ‘no’ to this tuition increase.”
ASFA VP external and sustainability Paul Jerajian called the meeting’s outcome “a major step for ASFA.”
The CSU organized the SGM along with ASFA and the Graduate Students’ Association.
There were no faculty or administrative representatives at the meeting and the strike mandate as it currently stands does not exclude the possibility of academic consequences for strikers. According to Jerajian, a motion which states the meeting’s result still needs to be approved by the faculty in order to have a clear academic amnesty. Walcott said that the CSU is sending the SGM result to the administration to inform them of the ASFA strike mandate. Meanwhile, Provost David Graham sent out a recommendation to faculties and departments to be lenient on Nov. 10 in matters of attendance and late assignments, Walcott said.
“A strike mandate from ASFA’s membership means that 18,000 students have democratically decided not to go to school and to support the action on Nov. 10,” said CSU president Lex Gill. “If the university tries to go against the motion and punish students for not going to class on that day they are putting themselves in a very bad position.”
ASFA and the GSA needed to meet quorum—a minimum of 371 undergraduate students and 60 graduate students, respectively—in order to obtain a legal vote. When quorum was met an hour after the meeting started, students voted to skip the information presentation on tuition hikes and to vote for a strike mandate straightaway. They also skipped the open microphone session in the process, a decision which left some students unable to voice their opinions.
“We are both against the mandate and we wanted to speak before the vote,” said Erik Scanlon, and Philip Ryan-Gyroux, two economics students. “They never actually opened the microphone for people who disagree with the mandate. This is unacceptable in a so-called democratic process.”
If the Nov. 10 protest does not meet the expected results, students could meet again to vote for an unlimited general strike, where students would strike continuously until demands are met or until students decide to stop striking. 

A march to join the 2 p.m. general rally at Place Émilie-Gamelin near Berri-UQAM metro station will leave the Reggie’s terrace at 1:10 p.m., and will pass by McGill University. The CSU is organizing a pre-gathering downtown from 11 a.m. onwards on the terrace. The student union has also arranged for buses to pick up students from the Loyola campus at 12:30 p.m. and bring them to Reggie’s to join the rest of the delegation

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Accessible education is dead; Long live accessible education

It seems that even the undead are opposed to tuition fee hikes in Quebec.
The Concordia Student Union and the Fédération des associations étudiantes du campus de l’Université de Montréal teamed up on Halloween for a double dose of protest in front of Premier Jean Charest’s Montreal office and home.
Covered in fake blood and wrapped up in toiler paper bandages, students taking part in the CSU-led march moaned and groaned their way along Ste-Catherine St., making their way from the Reggie’s terrace to Charest’s office on McGill College Avenue.
Carrying Jack-o’-lanterns, lit candles and plastic flowers, around 40 protesters led a funeral procession for “the death of accessible education.” Student Alex Matak led the “service” through a speaker system, encouraging passersby to “weep and cry and wail for education tonight.”
While mainly keeping to the sidewalk, protesters took a quick vote and decided to march on the road for one block on Ste-Catherine between Crescent St. and de la Montagne St. The procession then turned onto McGill College, ending at Charest’s office where the mention of his name incited wails of “Shame!” and “Murderer!” Matak then invited protesters to “close [their] eyes and bow [their] heads” in a moment of silence.
Several of the “mourners” were prompted to take the microphone and speak. “I wish I could eat their brains,” joked councillor Kyle McLoughlin when the zombie-protesters called out for the brains of Charest and his cabinet. “Maybe then I could get an education.”
The protesters left behind their lighted candles and pumpkins, which were snuffed out by security soon after, as well as a coffin with the words “See you in 10 days” painted on it in red.
Meanwhile, a similar demonstration organized by the FAÉCUM marched to Jean Charest’s house in Westmount to drop off a coffin representing the death of accessible education on his lawn. Around 120 students participated in the demonstration, according to FAÉCUM press attaché Alexandre Ducharme.
The protests were staged in a lead-up to a massive, inter-university demonstration scheduled for Nov. 10. That demonstration is part of the “$1,625 more won’t pass!” movement which kicked off at the the beginning of the semester. The movement is intended to voice students’ disagreement with the provincial government’s decision to up tuition for Quebec students by $325 per year over the next five years.
In preparation for Nov. 10, the Arts and Science Federation of Associations and the CSU have organized a special general meeting on Nov. 3 to ask students to approve a one-day strike mandate.
Since the SGM is the result of a motion passed by ASFA council at their October meeting,
if passed, the strike mandate will only officially affect ASFA students, according to CSU VP external Chad Walcott.
“I think it would send a very strong message that arts and science students are aware of and against student increases,” he said. “I think it will act as an incentive for students to be out on the Nov. 10 in the streets with us and the rest of the student movement.”
Lisa Raffy, a French international student studying political science at Concordia, said she supports the strike mandate. “In France, we strike all the time,” said Raffy, describing it as the most effective way to institute change.
In the event that the SGM does not meet quorum or that the students vote down the mandate, the student union has been working with university administration and faculty members to grant an informal academic amnesty day to students who do not show up for class on Nov. 10.

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ASFA looking to overhaul electoral system

At Thursday’s council meeting, former ASFA CEO Nicolas Cuillerier expressed his disappointment with the electoral violations his successor committed.
At Thursday’s council meeting, former ASFA CEO Nicolas Cuillerier expressed his disappointment with the electoral violations his successor committed. Photo by Navneet Pall

The Arts and Science Federation of Associations is looking at getting back on track following a week of electoral controversy that ended with the resignation of its chief electoral officer.

ASFA VP internal Schubert Laforest said on Monday that the federation will run an intensive campaign to find a new CEO and to properly train the candidate after the previous CEO quit on Oct. 20, leaving a trail of electoral violations behind him.

“We’re going to make sure we get the word out there through our website, through social media, and word of mouth,” said Laforest. “Ideally, we would like to have someone by November. This shouldn’t be a problem. It gives us time to learn from the mistakes of the past CEO.”

Those mistakes, committed during the Oct. 12 and 13 byelection by former CEO Marvin Cidamon, include hiring a former ASFA executive as a polling clerk, not providing executive summaries at all polling stations, and failing to properly announce the results of the elections. These violations, originally revealed in a Concordian article on Oct. 15, were then referred to ASFA’s judicial committee by Laforest and Cidamon himself on Oct. 19, only to have the deliberations pushed to a later date after a potential conflict of interest was declared by JC member Nicholas Pidiktakis.

Pidiktakis ultimately stepped down from his position, indicating in his letter of resignation that he had been present at the counting of the ballots on Oct. 13 and helped collect them, disobeying the CEO’s orders.

“Given this fact, in order to preserve the integrity of ASFA as an institution for all arts and science students and also to preserve the integrity of the Judicial Committee as an independent, a-political, and non-partisan body within ASFA, I have decided to resign in order to facilitate this preservation,” Pidiktakis wrote in the letter, which was read at the Oct. 20 special council meeting by JC member Justin Famili.

At the council meeting, former ASFA CEO and current Concordia Student Union chair Nicolas Cuillerier expressed his disappointment with the plethora of electoral violations committed by Cidamon, as well as his general disregard for Annex A, the document that establishes how an ASFA election is to be carried out and which was modified last April after Cuillerier made several recommendations to strengthen it.

Cuillerier went on to mention that at some periods during the byelection, polling stations either had one worker or none at all, as well as pointed out the fact that some students could have had the possibility to vote twice because polling clerks were not always indicating in the computer system who had already voted.

“These violations just set a really, really dangerous precedent,” said Cuillerier at the meeting. “It’s dangerous to have a laissez-faire CEO. Marvin is a good person, but good people don’t necessarily make good leaders. And a CEO has to be a good leader.”

Going forward, ASFA is looking at analyzing Annex A to clarify certain regulations and avoid repeating the violations that were committed by Cidamon. ASFA will also be looking to fill positions on the JC, which currently doesn’t have enough members to reach quorum.

“It was a learning process. When the election started we had a huge debacle unfold right away,” said Laforest. “In hindsight, it showed a lot of flaws in ASFA’s regulations. But the good thing is that it showed the flaws that need to be fixed so that this never happens again.”

The ballot recount conducted by the JC on Oct. 24 found that the byelection’s three winners – Alexis Suzuki for VP communications and promotions, Paul Jerajian for VP external and sustainability and Yasmeen Zahar for independent councillor – were indeed the rightful winners.

With files from Alyssa Tremblay.

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Suzuki, Jerajian, Zahar come out on top in ASFA byelections

A cloud of alleged violations may be hanging over the Arts and Science Federation of Associations’ byelections, but the winners and losers of last week’s race don’t seem duly concerned that the results might have been affected.

The VP communications and promotions race was the closest. Third-year English, art history and studio art student Alexis Suzuki edged out fourth-year communications student Katie Brioux with 209 votes, only twelve votes more than the 197 votes Brioux garnered. There were 98 abstentions. “I’m hitting the ground running and diving straight into working on my portfolio,” Suzuki wrote in an email after the results became known. “The elections for my position were very close, both my opponent and myself clearly worked very hard during campaign week and I consider myself to be extremely fortunate to have earned the position.”

Meanwhile, second-year actuarial math and finance student Paul Jerajian sailed through on a clear majority, wresting the title of VP external and sustainability from fourth-year biochemistry student Boris Degas with 236 votes. Nonetheless, Degas had the approval of 165 students, while there were 108 abstentions.

Jerajian wrote in an email that since he and Degas are on friendly terms, he can set about implementing some of the ideas his competitor wanted to initiate. Degas did not respond to a request for comment for this article.
Yasmeen Zahar beat opponent Sian Mill 222 votes to 135 for the independent councillor’s seat, while 147 students abstained.

Mill congratulated her opponent, adding that she looked forward to staying involved with ASFA.
None of the candidates interviewed for this article felt that the electoral violations really influenced the outcome of the elections.

Brioux, who said she was obviously disappointed by the results, didn’t think the allegations represented a huge deal. “Had I known about the weird things going on I might have been more suspicious but it seemed to go fine even though some of things weren’t proper, but it is kind of messy,” she said.

Independent councillor candidate Mill staunchly stood by ASFA chief electoral officer Marvin Cidamon, who told the Concordian he would take full responsibility for violating ASFA’s Annex A. “I think Marvin did a great job organizing and hiring for the elections, with the limited time he had. I do not think the alleged electoral violations would have changed the results,” Mill wrote in an email.

Jerajian agreed. “These violations may have been serious, but I sincerely think that the results would remain the same despite these violations,” he wrote.

Zahar was more on the fence than the other candidates in that respect. “Regarding the allegations, I think it is very difficult to tell whether certain aspects could have changed the outcome. However, I strongly believe that the ineligible poll clerk had no effect on the results,” Zahar wrote, adding “I think that the length of the polling period is the aspect with the biggest uncertainty surrounding it. Other than there being a larger voter turnout, it’s impossible to tell whether or not the outcome would have been different.”

Voters also approved the two referendum questions, which polled students on their feelings towards adding a “promotions” component to the VP communications’ portfolio and on giving the VP external & sustainability the clear responsibility of being the primary spokesperson for ASFA outside the university. Of the nearly 18,000 undergraduate arts and science students, a total of 512 turned out to vote in the byelections, or 2.8 per cent of ASFA’s members.

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ASFA steps it up in fight against tuition

The Arts and Science Federation of Associations has stepped up its involvement in its fight against tuition after passing a two-part motion at its Oct. 13 council meeting.

The motion, put forward by Charlie Brenchley, the community outreach coordinator for the School of Community and Public Affairs Student Association, stipulates that ASFA will support the tuition fee campaign the CSU is waging and will hold a special general assembly sometime in the week before the Nov. 10 mass student demonstration against tuition hikes. The assembly will inform and mobilize students about the event and how they can best participate in it.

CSU VP external Chad Walcott made a presentation prior to the motions where he discussed the student union’s campaign against tuition increases, including last September’s demonstration when over 1,000 red balloons were released in the Hall building. CSU president Lex Gill also attended the council meeting to speak on the subject.

“Personally, I think Chad is doing an amazing job with the tuition fight, and I didn’t put forth this motion, but I really support it,” said ASFA president Alex Gordon. “I think that it’s a great way to help mobilize arts and science students, and get them fully backing the CSU and the school as a whole […] when it comes to fighting tuition. So I’m all for it.”

While a date for the SGM has not yet been set, once the decision is made students will be able to find more details on ASFA’s website and on Facebook, as well as through student associations.

Member association budgets were not presented at the meeting because ASFA’s fee levy funds were only received the morning of the meeting. The budgets will be voted on at a special council meeting this Thursday.

The next regular ASFA council meeting takes place on Nov. 10.

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ASFA judicial committee will deliberate alleged electoral violations this week

The judicial committee of the Arts and Science Federation of Associations will deliberate this Wednesday evening and next Monday on alleged violations committed by the chief electoral officer in last week’s ASFA byelection.

On Saturday, the Concordian broke a story revealing that at least one polling clerk in the byelection, Nicole Devlin, last year’s ASFA VP internal, was ineligible to perform her duties. According to ASFA’s Annex A, all current and former ASFA executives are barred from acting as electoral officers.

JC member Justin Famili confirmed in an email Monday evening that “two requests for a formal opinion” regarding the Oct. 12 and 13 byelection had been received and that after preliminary inquiries, the three-member judicial committee would meet to deliberate the first contestation on Wednesday, Oct. 19.

That first request was filed by newly-hired CEO Marvin Cidamon and current ASFA VP internal Schubert Laforest, who indicated on Saturday that he made sure the issue of Devlin’s hiring was referred to the judicial committee as soon as it was brought to his attention post-byelection.

“I don’t know what happened exactly. It was a huge oversight by everyone,” said Laforest. “We’re going to send this on to JC and see what they say. The Annex doesn’t actually say what happens when these kinds of violations take place.”

The second contestation of complaint was filed by last year’s ASFA CEO Nicolas Cuillerier, and will be heard by the JC next Monday, Oct. 24. Cuillerier said he had filed the contestation “out of concern over the numerous violations that took place and the questionable oversight of Annex A.”

In his contestation, Cuillerier is seeking the JC’s ruling on four items: whether the byelection is still valid given the electoral violations, whether to consider punitive measures for the CEO, the deputy chief electoral officer and any other eligible electoral officer, whether the appointment of the CEO was a valid appointment, and whether the CEO should continue in his duties for the rest of the year.

“I filed this contestation with great concern regarding ASFA’s electoral system, a system I helped improve last year as CEO by making many recommendations to Annex A,” said Cuillerier on Monday night.

Another violation committed early in the polling period was the failure to ensure that executive summaries were present at all polling stations. These short paragraphs describing the candidates were ordered to be visible at all stations by the previous ASFA council last April. Cidamon immediately rectified the case of the missing executive summaries upon notification from Laforest on Oct. 12.

As for Devlin’s hiring, Cidamon maintained on Saturday evening that it was his “prerogative” to hire who he wanted to work at the polls, and that he would take full responsibility for violating ASFA’s Annex A, a 10-page document that details how ASFA elections are to be carried out.

“I feel it would be almost crazy if I didn’t hire her. If anyone knows how to run an election, it’s her,” he said, claiming that members of the judicial committee were well aware of Devlin’s hiring, but said nothing at the time.

The judicial committee declined the Concordian’s request for comment.

Given that the JC already allegedly knew of Devlin’s hiring but remained silent on the issue, Cidamon said he only sent the request for investigation to the JC because “somebody complained” to ASFA’s executive.

Not yet appointed by council

According to Annex A, the CEO must be appointed by ASFA council, though this has yet to actually happen. At its September meeting, council mandated the internal and administration committee to appoint an interim CEO until this selection could be ratified at the Oct. 13 council meeting.

The committee originally selected Paul Goubko, who is also ineligible to act as CEO because he is a former member association executive and ASFA councillor. Upon realizing this, the committee soon replaced Goubko with Cidamon, a former member association CEO. But the decision was never ratified at last Thursday’s council meeting as originally planned, with Laforest explaining that the vote was postponed because the meeting was taking place at Loyola while Cidamon was still at the downtown campus counting ballots.

“We felt he had to be at the meeting,” said Laforest. “But technically he is still a legitimate CEO. The idea is that between council meetings, oversight committees have the power of council. Our decision just has to be re-approved by council.”

In an email sent shortly after midnight on Tuesday, ASFA’s chair informed councillors that the ratification of the CEO’s appointment would take place at a special council meeting scheduled for this Thursday.

Asked whether his committee was now reconsidering its choice of Cidamon given the alleged violations, Laforest said the decision to take Cidamon on as a permanent CEO now lies with council.

The version of Annex A currently posted on ASFA’s website is outdated, stemming from council’s December meeting. When asked if Cidamon had consulted this document rather than the updated version, which was approved in April, Laforest confirmed that he had indeed gone over the most recent version of the Annex with Cidamon during CEO training in late September.

Waiting for the results

There were also some other stipulations in Annex A that may or may not have been respected, depending on the interpretation. For instance, the document indicates that the polling period must run over three consecutive days. The recent byelection only ran for two days.

“We struggled with that one a lot. The three consecutive days applies to general elections, but it doesn’t explicitly say byelections,” said Laforest, indicating that this is something he is hoping to clear up this year.

“I will be meeting with the administration and internal committee as well as policy review to go over and revise the electoral proceedings of ASFA, from hiring electoral officers to the actual administering of the election,” said Laforest.

“ASFA is getting bigger and becoming more complex, so we need to stop relying on convention and have tighter, more explicit, legislation.”

Another stipulation in the Annex says that the CEO must announce the results of the election within 24 hours after the counting of the ballots, although it doesn’t specifically say how the results must be announced.

In Cidamon’s case, Laforest said he “understood” that the CEO had emailed the candidates and student media with the results, but was unsure if the results had actually been posted by the CEO to a platform accessible to the general public.

“We kind of let him do his own thing. We wanted to respect his chronology and let him count all the ballots,” said Laforest.

Cidamon explained that he texted the candidates with the results, and later emailed them. He also emailed the results to members of the student press, but only after this information had been requested.

“To be honest, I wouldn’t have even given you guys the results if you hadn’t asked,” said Cidamon.

Contacted on Friday, ASFA president Alex Gordon said he “had taken a step back from the elections,” allowing Cidamon and the polling officers to run the byelection.

“As far as the validity of the process, we try to follow by the book as much as possible. If there were any violations or problems, we would have to look at them as an executive. The proper venue might be the JC,” said Gordon. “But I don’t think these violations are on the same level of seriousness as a candidate’s violations.”

As it stands, the winners of the byelection are Alexis Suzuki for VP communications and promotions, Paul Jerajian for VP external and sustainability, and Yasmeen Zahar for independent councillor.

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Meet your ASFA candidates

Candidates for VP external and sustainability 

Boris Degas
Program and year of study: Fourth-year biochemistry student.
Relevant previous experience: Volunteer for the Concordia Student Union orientation, with the Concordia Alumni team and at Hingston Hall to help students move in.
Why he is running for the job: “Volunteering with the CSU has been great. I feel like you can contribute directly and have impact on people,” Degas said. “I care a lot of about the environment and feel like I can really make a difference.”
Ideas he will bring to the table if elected:
– Institute a bike co-op. “As a biker, I know a lot of people commute to school with bikes, and we’re lacking somewhere where we can meet people who are interested in biking as well and where we can use tools to repair bikes ourselves without having to pay huge amounts of money to a private shop.”
– Hold “dump and run” events, where during the school year people can drop off unwanted goods and then in September, the goods would be sold with profits going to charity.
– Bring back the Green Week: bring in speakers and organize workshops while involving local farmers and cooks.
Why is he the best person for the job: “I’m a very energetic and outgoing person. I try to be charismatic to get people’s attention and network. I feel like those would be big assets to the job to be able to use my energy and my persona to get things done.”

To learn more about Boris Degas, contact him through Facebook.

Paul Jerajian
Program and year of study: Second-year actuarial math and finance student.
Relevant previous experience: An internship this summer at a pharmaceutical company, where he had to work with a marketing manager and deal with external associations.
Why he decided to run:
– For the VP external portfolio: “I was really hit by the tuition hikes. I was really disappointed, because there are a lot of actuaries that work for the government and if they can’t see this happening, it’s the students who are paying for this, and students shouldn’t be in a position where they should pay more.”
– For the VP sustainability portfolio: Jerajian feels that Concordia could be even more sustainable than it actually is.
Ideas he will bring to the table if elected:
– As VP sustainability, he would promote more vegan alternatives on campus and raise awareness about veganism.
– On the long term, Jerajian wants to look into putting recycling bins in every class and talk with Chartwells to extend the menu at Concordia.
Why he is the best person for the job: Through his degree and class, he has gained expertise about tuition hikes because his education focuses on insurance, foreshadowing risk, hedging, and investing money.
To learn more about Paul Jerajian, contact him through Facebook or email him at pjerajian@gmail.com.

 

Candidates for VP of communications and promotions

Katie Brioux
Program and year of study: Fourth-year communications specialization student.
Relevant previous experience: Brioux has worked for the Concordian for two years, including one year as graphics editor. “I  also have an amateur background in art and visual art [and have] made posters for überculture’s ‘Buy Nothing Day’.”
Why she decided to run: “For me it feels right as something I am passionate about, just because I really do enjoy being involved at school and I wish for everyone else to feel the same way I do about their faculty and their school as well,” she said.
Ideas she wants to bring to the table:
– Revamp the ASFA website as “an open communications platform and bring it more to a discussion level for students.”
– Create vlog news journal for ASFA to let students in on what’s going on at ASFA.
Why she is the best person for the job: “I just feel like I can do a really good job and will whole-heartedly dedicate myself to it. I’m already putting off homework and school to campaign!”

To learn more about Katie, contact her through her Facebook group at votekatie4vpcoms.tk or email her at katiebrx@gmail.com.

 

 

Alexis Suzuki
Program and year of study: Third-year English, art history and studio art student.
Related previous experience: Suzuki is currently VP external for Volunteers In Action, a Concordia charity-based group that works with different charities both locally and abroad. “One of my responsibilities on VIA is to create and distribute sponsorship packages, and that’s something that has recently been added to the ASFA VP communications portfolio, so I think that it would work nicely and it would go hand in hand.”
Why she decided to run: “I feel like partaking in school initiatives has the potential to enhance the university experience exponentially and I’d love to be the one responsible for informing students of all the amazing things that ASFA in particular makes accessible to this school.”
Ideas she will bring to the table if elected:
– Brainstorm options of response to rising tuition. “I think we also need to make other options available for students to voice their opinions and voice their discontent with rising tuition [besides protests].” Suzuki would like to get executives from different associations to brainstorm about other ways students can voice their discontent.
Why she is the best person for the job: “I’m coming from an artistic perspective, and I’d really like to try to be innovative in the position if elected […] art is about so many different things in so many different ways and I think that that enables people to communicate to different people in different ways.”
If you want more information about Alexis, visit her website at www.alexissuzuki.com or join her Facebook group, “VOTE FOR ALEXIS SUZUKI ASFA VP COMMUNICATIONS & PROMOTIONS – OCT. 12th-13th.”

Laura Robbins withdrew her candidacy for the position of VP of communications shortly after the campaign period had started. She found out that she is not eligible for election as she is on a semester-long academic leave for personal reasons. According to ASFA bylaws, executive members must be taking classes in order to be eligible. Robbins intends to run for the executive in the future once she returns to full-time studies.

Candidates for independent councillor

Sian Mill
Program and year of study: Fourth-year human environment and urban studies student.
Previous experience: VP internal of the geography undergraduate student society last year.
Why she decided to run: “I really liked my first exposure to student politics [as VP internal]. I liked working with the past executive and am looking forward to getting to know the current executive.”
Why she is the best person for the job: “I’m really dedicated to the position. I’ve learnt all the relevant bylaws and annexes and I’m learning Robert’s Rules to help council go smoothly as possible.”
What ideas she would like to bring to the table: “I realize that we have to be realistic. I know that the execs and the chair are going to be setting the agenda but in the back of my mind I will be thinking about the member associations and the events they are putting on to better enrich the student lives and help people get involved. So, when I am sitting on council that is the main point I’d like to keep in mind.”

If you’d like to learn more about Sian, you can contact her through Facebook or email at sian_mill@hotmail.com.

 

Yasmeen Zahar

Program and year of study: Second-year environmental science student.

Relevant previous experience: While new to student politics, as an environmental science major she is passionate about sustainability.
Why she decided to run: “I attended a ton of ASFA events last year so I got really familiar about how it works and was interested in getting more involved with it. I thought independent councillor is a good place to start. I’m interested in being on council and voicing people’s concerns.”
Why she is the best person for the job: She says she is passionate about the job and very personable. As such, she would voice students’ concerns at council and hold the executive accountable to make sure they are doing the best they can for students.
Ideas she would like to bring to the table: Zahar would be interested in working on the sustainability committee to hold events and increase awareness about sustainability. “As an international student, I was [also] hoping to address concerns that international students have – could be on tuition, could be on anything else that they would want voiced there.” Zahar would also like to get more international students involved around school to make them feel more comfortable.
If you want more information about Yasmeen, contact her through Facebook (as Yazzy Zahar), or email her at y_zahar@hotmail.com.

Voting takes place Oct. 12 and 13.

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