Candidates for the 2024 Residence Society (ResSoc) elections gathered in the main lobby of Victoria Hall on Jan. 28 to debate their platforms.
Allen Wu, HealthSci ’25, and Katarina Krivokapic, ArtSci ’26, are competing for the role of president.
Haarini Suntharalingham, HealthSci ’25, and Jana Amer, HealthSci ’26, are in the running for vice-president (residence operations).
Grace Cao, HealthSci ’25, is the sole candidate for vice-president (society operations).
ResSoc and ResLife relationship
Candidates all emphasized the importance of nurturing a closer working relationship between ResSoc—the student-led organization that oversees events, programming, and financial bursaries in residence—and Residence Life and Services (ResLife), the University body employing residence dons.
Krivokapic stated she intended to extend the partnership between ResLife and ResSoc to Housing and Ancillary Services, who maintain the housing infrastructure and food services in residence.
Suntharalingham promised to encourage dons to attend ResSoc General Assembly meetings to integrate them more closely with the student government in residence.
“I would like to see more collaborations between dons and house presidents in the future regarding building events, because I think that helps bring together both organizations,” she said.
All-access dining
For the 2024-25 school year, Queen’s is considering implementing an “all-access” dining plan that gives students unlimited access to the dining halls, but eliminates TAMs and substitutes them with increased flex dollars.
Wu, who has food allergies and dietary restrictions, believes the removal of TAMs would limit students’ meal options. He was in support of last semester’s meal plan, which gave students 21 meal swipes a week and 250 TAMs over the entire year.
Amer, Suntharalingham, Cao, and Krivokapic want to obtain student feedback on the new proposed meal plan, and then base their advocacy on those opinions.
“I want to know what students think, and as well just more details on what this new model actually entails, like if it means dining halls will be open for longer, or how much more flex [dollars] people will actually be getting,” Amer said.
This semester, meal swipes were reduced from 21 to 19 a week due to the reopening of Leonard Hall. All candidates spoke favourably of last semester’s meal plan, as it allowed students to eat three meals a day, all week.
Open question period
During the open question period, candidates were asked how they would address antisemitism in residence, following several instances where Mezuzahs were removed from the doors of Jewish students living in Leggett Hall.
Krivokapic condemned antisemitism, Islamophobia, and anti-Arab sentiments at the debate, while saying she supported using education as a way of combating discrimination in residence.
“I want there to be educational initiatives aimed at informing students about the rich cultural fabric of the University. I want to consult campus groups that enable this culture of inclusivity to happen at Queen’s, and I want to work together to ensure these incidents are reported and there are repercussions,” she said.
Suntharalingham recognized hate incidents are often first reported to dons and Residence Life Coordinators. They hoped to improve communication with these individuals if elected.
Wu promised to implement cultural competency trainings for all residence staff in ResSoc and ResLife over the summer.
An audience member questioned ResSoc’s decision to approve spending $4,000 for refreshments in the ResSoc offices in this year’s budget.
As ResSoc’s current Chief Financial Officer who is on leave during the election, Krivokapic prepared this budget. She claimed this money was used to create a snack table in the ResSoc office that encouraged students to interact with Society staff.
She said the response to this initiative has been tremendously positive, and was made possible by reducing unnecessary administrative, banking, and printing costs from the budget rather than being taken from funding for bursaries and residence programming.
Wu and Suntharalingham believed $4,000 was an excessive amount of money to spend on snacks. Furthermore, Wu pointed out this money was only being allocated to the ResSoc office in Victoria Hall, rather than across other residence buildings.
“I go to Costco and buy $200 worth of food, that’s enough to fill your car. Let’s say, multiply that by twenty times. Do we really need $4,000 of refreshments in the ResSoc office?” Wu asked.
All candidates were concerned about an audience member’s question that brought up a lack of engagement with students living in the West Campus residences.
Wu noted that while Jean Royce Hall has two positions for house presidents, only one has ever been filled. He hoped to prioritize recruiting house presidents for West Campus.
Amer proposed events that specifically highlight and make students aware of the features available on West Campus, such as by implementing Jean Royce dining days.
Voting for ResSoc elections opens on Feb. 1.
Corrections
An earlier version of this article incorrectly published Katarina Krivokapic’s last name. Incorrect information was published in the Feb. 2 issue of The Queen’s Journal.
The Journal regrets the error
Tags
debate, Election, Election2024, ResSoc
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