Student input a focus for Team WRL

Allison Williams, Justin Reekie and Philip Lloyd seek to deliver small, but comprehensive initiatives as AMS executive

Justin Reekie
Image by: Nicolaas Smith
Justin Reekie

Team WRL promises to bring discounted VIA rail tickets, two new services to the JDUC and gluten-free options to the Brew if elected.

The team consists of Allison Williams for AMS president & CEO, Justin Reekie for vice-president (operations) and Philip Lloyd for vice-president (university affairs).

The team also plans to run a sanctioned Homecoming event on University Ave., lobby for more summer courses at Queen’s and open a walk-in medical clinic in the Queen’s Centre.

Two new services in the JDUC would depend on student feedback, according to the team, but one option includes a dental office in the JDUC performance space.

Their platform, which runs 77 pages, emphasizes a hands-off approach to clubs and faculty societies, and cautions against implementing changes that may be unwanted.

“We want to make sure the AMS is not overbearing or controlling the day-to-day logistics of clubs, because that’s not our role,” Lloyd said.

The team said the majority of their initiatives would come at little to no cost to the AMS, or would pay for themselves in the long term.

Allison Williams, ArtSci ’14, currently works as the Academic Affairs Commissioner (AAC) in the AMS. Her role involves overseeing the Academic Grievance Centre and advocating for the student body on academic issues.

She was one of the two authors of the AMS enrolment White Paper released last fall. AMS Municipal Affairs Commissioner Catherine Wright also wrote a section of the paper.

Although AMS positions don’t require any experience, she said the role of the Academic Affairs Commissioner is a good introduction to the work conducted by the AMS President.

“In a lot of ways the AAC is sort of an extension of the President, because the President is the final lobbyist for a lot of the issues the AAC deals with,” Williams said.

These issues include class sizes and academic quality, she added.

She also said she’s worked with the administration extensively while running the Academic Affairs Commission.

Justin Reekie, ArtSci ’13, works as the current AMS Hospitality and Safety Services Director. This position oversees Common Ground, Queen’s Student Constables, TAPS and Walkhome.

“It’s provided me the opportunity to plan for services, really looking at the macro level of the service as well as the micro level of the service,” he said.

Reekie has also worked with current Vice-President (Operations) Nicola Plummer on the consolidated budget for the services, he said, which has given him a good understanding of the corporate side of the AMS.

He added that he has experience managing large groups of employees – TAPS has eight managers and Common Ground has six.

Philip Lloyd, ConEd ’13, was the Concurrent Education Students’ Association (CESA) president last year. He now volunteers at the Academic Affairs Commission and has been nominated to sit on the Senate Orientation Activities Review Board.

He said his knowledge of smaller faculty societies such as CESA would be advantageous for a vice-president (university affairs).

During his term as CESA president, he focused on student feedback, which he said he’d carry over into his position as vice-president (university affairs), if elected.

“We thought too much about students coming to these leadership positions and we needed to go to the students and make sure we are being proactive in that sense,” he said.

Of all the commissions, he said he’s particularly interested in the Academic Affairs Commission.

“[It’s] understanding how education works across universities in the province and what Queen’s is doing well and how we can improve. That’s the area I am most interested,” Lloyd said.

Tags

AMS, Elections

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