COMPSA debate between teams AMA and SEM focuses on student engagement

This story has been updated as of Feb. 11, 6:40 p.m., to include comments made during the COMPSA debate by Shahnoor Sarfraz. 

On Feb. 7 at 6:07 p.m., the Computing Students’ Association (COMPSA) executive debate for 2026-27 began.

In Goodwin Hall, team AMA and SEM sat down for questions to a crowd of roughly 15, and multiple live viewers across the COMPSA Instagram. Both teams reached across the room and shook hands with one another prior to the questions beginning. The debate was over an hour and a half long and featured seven questions from the moderator, one from the Instagram live audience, and three from the audience in person.

Team SEM featured Mirwaaj Afzal running for president, Shahnoor Sarfraz running as the vice-president (operations) (VPOP), and Ella St. John running as the vice-president (student affairs) (VPSA).

Team AMA was comprised of Abdel-Rahman Mobarak for president, Manreet Gill for VPOP, and Aryaman Bhatia for VPSA.

The two teams were divided based on their attire, with Mobarak’s team sporting matching hats with the slogan “AMA 4 COMPSA,” while Afzal’s team were dressed in matching suits.

The debate featured a focus on orientation, both teams agreed on increasing the society’s initiative during the events, as well as further expansion of student opportunities outside of the Computing focused clubs.

When asked how COMPSA should contribute to the Queen’s community outside of Computing, Mobarak specifically underlined the importance of having interdisciplinary events.

Mobarak exemplified that this visibility can be increased and benefited through events with groups like Commerce and Engineering to gain prominence as a distinct faculty in Queen’s, stating, “a lot of people looking outside Queen’s, they see maybe only two schools, for example, Commerce and Engineering.”

He later followed up, saying that “it’s a two-way street, we want to contribute to the Queen’s community, and they’ll contribute to us as well.”

Afzal took a different route, drawing attention to the lack of alumni presence and how he feels this is hampering COMPSA’s visibility and contribution to Queen’s as it slowly grows into its own faculty. Afzal stated his plan as president is to find and engage with previous Computing graduates by cooperating with the administration.

“In the past 22 years, the only people (alumni) that they [Queen’s] have tracked down are previous COMPSA presidents,” Afzal said. Not one alumnus has been tracked down, written down; we have absolutely zero information on it.”

St. John clarified her intentions to strengthen the expectations of the year representative role and make it a clearly defined position.

When speaking on the issues facing student representatives, St. John explained that “their role isn’t the most functional, [as] there aren’t tangible deliverables that they’re expected to accomplish, they’re kind of just here to show up.”

St. John clarified that her platform includes reforming the year rep role and commended the reps for the work they’ve done under their circumstances.

Sarfraz also clarified her goals, explaining she wants to implement detailed reports from directors within COMPSA to foster better communication. Additionally, she spoke about wanting to ensure funding is directed towards “roles and initiatives with clearly defined responsibilities and measurable impact,” including funding for fixing the computers and bathrooms in Goodwin Hall.

Throughout the night, Bhatia pushed for incentives for student feedback and declared that this plan would help increase student engagement and communication for course selection and student criticism to be relayed back to administration for meaningful change.

Bhatia detailed his plan by saying, “Maybe it could be something as simple as a raffle draw for a 15- or 20-dollar Starbucks gift card, something like that. It would incentivize students to actually fill out these forms; that way, we can effectively get their feedback.”

Gill added that there’s a need for cross-collaboration between the department clubs, arguing it’s incredibly important for the facility to find others outside of their computing bubble. She argued that a better relationship across all faculties is the most important part of making this a reality.

AMA stressed Orientation expansion to feature COMPSA, which currently they don’t support, more support for Computing clubs and a collaboration with other departments’ clubs to broaden the student experience, and accountability in government with regular audits of the COMPSA finances.

SEM declared they have a “concrete plan.” They reiterated society’s role in orientation, drawing light to the fact that they’re the only society that doesn’t support orientation. They declared they plan on bridging the gap between first-years and the faculty by having more visits to classes per semester, and using the year representatives to increase faculty exposure

The two teams had a sense of camaraderie throughout the debate, complementing each other and reaching across the table to respectively co-opt each other’s ideas.

Voting for COMPSA executive team is currently open.

Tags

COMPSA elections, COMPSA executive, Elections 2026

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