Team Bold hopes to improve CESA’s current systems

Uncontested executive hopefuls pledge transparency about hiring processes, assemblies

Image by: Jodie Grieve
From left to right: Max O’Connor Clarke

Team Bold decided on a three-pillar platform to work toward the improvement of the Concurrent Education Student Association (CESA).

The team is comprised of Presidential candidate Julia Bukala, Vice-President (Internal) candidate Max O’Connor Clarke, and Vice-President (External) candidate Nicole Li, all ConEd ‘21 students.

All members of Team Bold are active in the CESA community. Bukala is currently a representative to the AMS, and Li has been on the extended council for two years as a community affairs coordinator and alumni outreach coordinator. O’Connor Clarke said they’ve attended CESA events since their first year at Queen’s.

In an interview with The Journal, Bukala said she decided to run for president because, as an AMS representative, she saw things she believes she “would be able to realistically and tangibly change to improve CESA.”

The team said the first pillar of their campaign is transparency, aiming to keep students aware of what’s going on within the Society and to ensure open communication.

The team also plans to provide students with summaries of what’s going on before CESA assemblies, and increase information available about the Society’s hiring process so students are aware of what they are signing up for. Bukala said access to knowledge about CESA is vital for the ConEd community.

“The decisions and things we do have a big impact on ConEd students,” she said.

The team’s second pillar is accessibility. They said they’re researching financial accessibility and hope to better advertise bursaries available to students.

They’re also planning to increase CESA’s online presence and increase mental and social accessibility with the events that they are planning.

“We know that the ConEd community is diverse. There’s a lot of different interests, abilities, and needs, and we want to make sure that we’re offering students opportunities to get engaged in whatever way suits them best,” Li said.

The top rung of Team Bold’s platform ladder is student engagement. They’re planning to have the Society’s year reps, senator, and AMS representatives reach out to the student body to gather feedback about how to improve engagement.

“We can major in anything we want, everyone has so many different interests, hobbies, and passions, and we want to include as much of that as we can in our events by collaborating with other groups on campus,” O’Connor Clarke said.

Team Bold said they don’t want to change everything, but do want to improve the current systems in place within CESA. O’Connor Clarke says their predecessors have put in the work, and they have a solid foundation to work with.

“We want to work on improving the good things we already have,” Bukala said.

Tags

2020 student elections, CESA elections, uncontested

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