Students hoping to be part of the next Health Sciences Society (HSS) executive team debated hot topics in Mackintosh-Corry Hall on Feb. 4.
Sunaina Vallamkonda, HealthSci ’26, running for HSS president, and Stella Murphy, HealthSci ’26, vice-president (operations) candidate, were in attendance. Neither candidate for vice-president (university affairs), Eileen Danaee or Maddy Farquhar, Health Sci ’26, attended the debate, but both provided written responses to questions.
Competitors for the position of third-year representative, Jessica Lee and Andy Ganea, HealthSci ’26, and fourth-year representative candidates Luca Manconi and Rohaan Syan, HealthSci ’25, showed up ready to debate.
Uncontested second-year representative candidate Hiritharan, HealthSci ’27, didn’t attend the debate or submit written responses.
Enhancing student engagement
Presidential candidate Vallamkonda wants to partner with other faculties and clubs with common interests to boost student engagement. She plans to assign HSS representatives to make classroom visits.
Murphy promises to keep the HSS club’s event calendar up-to-date and enhance engagement by implementing club and commissioner awards. Murphy hopes to run inter-faculty events to promote healthy competition and physical and mental health amongst students.
In the role of VPUA, either Farquhar or Dananee will be primarily responsible for organizing HSS students’ orientation experience. Farquhar hopes to promote HSS extracurricular opportunities from the start, using orientation week to create a sense of community for first-year students.
Dananee hopes to increase accessibility by reducing orientation costs and connecting students with different support services at Queen’s from the beginning. Hosting a dance for first-year studentsduring orientation is a must if she’s elected for VPUA.
Managing HSS commissions
If elected, Vallamkonda plans to continue hosting biweekly meetings for HSS members. She believes the meetings keep the flow of communication across commissions consistent. As President, she wants to be a support for HSS council members.
Murphy also intends on continuing biweekly meetings with commissions under her portfolio but will extend the invitation to the finance commissioner and year representatives if elected. Expanding the circle will allow students “to bounce ideas off each other’s ideas.”
Farquhar intends on increasing accessibility for accommodations and better explain the behind-the-scenes of HSS decisions. She will continue existing academic initiatives such as peer mentoring programs.
For opponent Dananee, communication is a must. She intends to allocate the VPUA budget to commissions on a “needs basis.”
Year representatives on HSS advocacy
Vying for the contested third-year representative position, Ganea wants to improve communications with his cohort by creating digestible reports summarizing HSS assemblies and sending them as emailed newsletters to students.
Creating a safe space for students to report their concerns to the HSS is a priority for candidate Lee, who wants to create anonymous feedback forms. She promises to present the concerns for discussion at HSS assemblies.
All other year representative candidates agree to streamline the feedback process for HSS.
Polls for HSS positions close on Feb. 9. Due to a technical issue, votes cast before Feb. 8 aren’t being counted, and students must cast their ballots again.
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