Next year, education students will be faced with a new governing body after students in the faculty of education voted to leave the AMS and join the SGPS last Thursday night.
“Most of the ESS members that I talked to seemed to indicate that it was just a better alignment of interests,” SGPS President Jeff Welsh said.
MCRC executive candidate team GAS believes that, if elected, their experience within the residence system will prove to be their greatest asset.
“I’ve lived in residence all three years that I’ve been here at Queen’s,” said presidential candidate Robyn Gregory.
MCRC executive candidate team YTP is putting an emphasis on communication within and beyond the residence bubble.
“Our platform is based on making a better residence for everyone, a better community. Implementing more sustainability efforts,” said vice-president (residence affairs) candidate Lucia Ter Stege.
ASUS presidential candidate Jill Evans and her running mate Josh Michelson both know they have their work cut out for them.
Evans, ArtSci ’11, said she’s aware her faculty society has an image problem.
Engineering Society presidential candidate Greg Ellis, Sci ’10, said his status as an EngSoc outsider gives him a unique perspective on student government.
Engineering Society presidential candidate Chris Reinfelds says he wants to use his experience on EngSoc to give back to the society. Reinfelds, a third-year chemical engineering student, has been a member of the Engineering Society Board of Directors for the past two years.
Team KAM–Mike Brinkworth, ConEd ’10, Katie Shifman, ConEd ’09 and Allison Sullovey, ConEd ’09 –are running uncontested for the Concurrent Education Students Association executive.
ASUS presidential candidate Dave Sinkinson gained political experience through participating in Queen’s Model Parliament (QMP),Queen’s Univeristy Liberal Association (QULA), and working for the office of MP Peter Miliken.
Sinkinson said he has been proud of Queen’s both as a Kingstonian and a student, so he decided to research positions such as senator in Queen’s student government.
The Education Students’ Society (ESS), a faculty comprised of 653 students in the Faculty of Education, voted to leave from the AMS in favour of joining the SGPS in a referendum on Thursday. Of the 653 eligible to vote, 236 students—36.1 percent—cast a ballot.
If there’s one thing AMS presidential candidates Michael Ceci of team CYZ and Colin McLeod of team MAP agreed on at Wednesday night’s debate, it’s that the debate was a success.
“Overall, it was a very classy debate,” McLeod said.
The Four Directions Aboriginal Student Centre seeks to enhance the development and well-being of the Queen’s University Aboriginal Community. In keeping with the teachings of the Four Directions, The Centre strives to support individual Aboriginal students in balancing their academic, spiritual, physical, and emotional needs.
Departments within the Faculty of Arts and Science are feeling the budget crunch as they prepare for faculty-wide cutbacks of 15 per cent per faculty over the next three years.
Alistair MacLean, dean of the Faculty of Arts and Science, said departments will have to cut an additional three per cent over three years to contribute to the “progress through the ranks” (PTR) tax.
For student trustee candidate Gary Yeung, communicating between different groups comes naturally.
Yeung, Comm ’11 and ArtSci ’12, is the AMS deputy communications officer, a position he says will help him liaise between students and the 43 other members of the Board of Trustees.
Student trustee candidate Morgan Campbell said if elected, she’ll hit the ground running and start pushing for changes she thinks the student body needs to see immediately.
“To get things done you need to establish really strong relationships with certain Board members,” she said.
With Queen’s facing a 15 per cent cut to its operations budget over the next three years, Team CYZ plans to advocate for students’ financial and academic interests. Presidential candidate Michael Ceci said universities across Canada are facing budget cuts.
This year’s AMS election campaign is not as clean as AMS speaker Mike Koichopolos suggested in his closing comments Wednesday night at the presidential candidates debate.
At last night’s ASUS Assembly meeting, AMS executive team candidates addressed comments MAP vice-president (university affairs) candidate Suhail Panjwani made last August on Facebook.
For us, team Ceci-Yun-Zabrodski, the AMS is about one thing, our top priority, YOU! We are running to be YOUR executive because we want to restore your pride in Queen’s. Team CYZ believes in taking action, not just talking about accountability.
To Team CYZ, campaigning for AMS executive means being accountable, both morally and financially, to Queen’s students. Presidential candidate Michael Ceci said many students feel there is a lack of incentive for the AMS executive to follow through on their platform promises.
For Team MAP—presidential candidate Colin McLeod, vice-president (operations) candidate Ellen Allwright and vice-president (university affairs) candidate Suhail Panjwani—their election platform stands on three fundamental pillars: advocating, educating and empowering. McLeod, ArtSci ’09, said advocating means standing up for the high quality of education for which Queen’s is known.
Director of Health, Counselling and Disability Services Mike Condra said he has seen a rise in the number of sexual assaults linked to date-rape drugs reported to HCDS in the past year. “This is a problem we have been aware of for quite a number of years both locally and from other educational institutions,” he said.
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