UMSU vice-presidential candidates 2008

VP (EXTERNAL)   |   VP (INTERNAL)   |   VP (ADVOCACY)   |   VP (STUDENT SERVICES)

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Rita Bruce-Nonakewin  | Ben Singer

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What experience do you bring to this position?

Well, for the past couple of years I’ve an involvement with the African student association being a PRO. I’ve also had a position where I volunteered for orientation. I’ve had an opportunity to work for Ontario Public and Manitoba Child services. So I’ve had expereince working with people-one-on one and having to get communication out there.

How would UMSU be different if you were in office?

[I]’ve had a couple of friends, that have come to me and say, “Hey, I’ve noticed on my tuition I pay UMSU fees, but I don’t know what they do. I don’t know what it’s all about.”

So I’ve looked at it and I’m like well if I paid to it we are elected by the student for the student, therefore we should be able to do what is in our best to push it out there to let students know that UMSU is there for you in various activities if you want to know more information of UMSU. And one of the things that Students United wanted to put into action is having to have UMSU Vision which will be a closed circuit TV network on campus all accross that will promote events activities going on on campus within our school to get students to know better about their union.

What do you think differentiates you from the other presidential candidates and what would you say to students about why they should vote for you?

If i’m a student and I’m paying to a student union I need to know what the student union have to do for me what they can do for me. I can go in and ask a question and be expecting an answer and I should get it.

One of the major things also will be transportation issues. [ . . . ]So one of the major things will be lobbying for more routes for buses to get in here, and cheaper bus fares. Maybe buying bus passes in bulks.

And when it comes to students, why I would tell them to vote for me is let them know what I’m here to do one being having to have a transit system that works best for us, as students as a whole, believing in a vision that the students have for the school itself, the diverstiy of the school itself and the community as a whole.

And so if students believe that the school needs change then they should come vote.

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What experience do you bring to this position?

Well, so far as experience is concerned, i would have to say that the main position requirement is one of communication because it is VP external. And I have for the past couple of years, been a communcaiton rep for Arts Student Body Council.

How would UMSU be different if you were in office?

I’m willing to listen to anybody. I believe U of M has one of the most diverse student populations in North America. and we really haven’t been seeing that reflected in UMSU in past years. I would go out of my way to bring these voices, to make sure they are heard in UMSU council.

One of my ideas — there’s no reason that UMSU members of the executive, who are salaried empployees, can’t go to other faculty student association meetings. Right now, we expect them to go to us. But really I don’t think that’s entirely the correct approach, we should be going to them as well.

I’d say, going way back, there was a better sense of community in early UMSU. [ . . .]. I want to re-establish that community.

What do you think differentiates you from the other presidential candidates and what would you say to students about why they should vote for you?

You can go to umsu.ca/elections. And you’ll see that they’ve already launched two complaints against both other slates out there. The complaints weren’t, in my opinon, well founded at all. It’s just one of those tactics tht’s kind of, in my opinion, low. I was not impressed by that at all. So I would say that every single member of Clean Slate brings a level of respectability and experience, but mostly respectability and expereince, that the other slate lacks.

This is the time. This is the vote. This is the vote that you’re going to vote on that will have the most profound effect. Whether you’re a returning student yourself or whether you’re an outgoing student-perhaps your younger brothers and sisters.

This is the vote that going to have the most relevant effect on the student community for the next 5-10 years, I would say.

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Christine Brine  | Leanne Rajotte

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What experience do you bring to this position?

I’m currently sitting as ASPC treasurer, as well as I’ve been the treasurer for an UMSU student group for the past two years, which is the U of M Model United Nations Association.

Why did you choose to run for vice-president (internal)?

I think, personally for me, it fits more with how I am and the skills I have already developed and learned and I can add more to the position.

How would UMSU be different if you were in office?

“I think you would see more of an opportunity for students to get to know their UMSU executives a lot better. You would be, for me personally, I’d be getting out there getting to know the students one on one instead of just the select group that volunteers with UMSU. I’d be getting out there more and having the opportunities to meet them and try to get students engaged with the university and try to bring back that sense of community that some students say are missing from the university.”

How can UMSU make or save more money?

“Make? I would have to sit down physically and look at what an actual detailed budget through UMSU. Those are hard to find and see and actually look at. It might mean slashing costs at one place and raising costs at another or finding new initiatives or new ideas to bring more students into UMSU businesses.”

What are your goals or projects for the year?

“One of my goals or one of my pet projects I would love to see is working out an initiative with Winnipeg Transit to bring in a semester pass program or even just to start the framework so that it can be carried on cause if you look at other universities throughout this country most of them now have a semester bus pass and we don’t. So where we going wrong there? And that’d be one of my main projects for the year would be something like that.”

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What experience do you bring to this position?

Through my experience within UMSU I’ve been a volunteer on various occasions and well as I was volunteer coordinator for the past orientation. So, being involved within UMSU, I’ve learned a lot about what can be improved and what is needed for students and where things need to be changed and evolved.

Why did you choose to run for vice-president (internal)?

I like the idea of bringing forward many different types of services for students to make it easier for them to be at university and be on campus. As well, I like the fact that I can improve the food services that UMSU offers and expand them more and bring forward new ideas and new things. As well as the aspect of overseeing the budget really interests me as I am in Commerce and that is an interesting aspect of it.

How would UMSU be different if you were in office?

There’d be more communication with the students at large so that they would know what UMSU was doing for them and what they are getting out of UMSU. As well as knowing when things are happening, what’s going on, where things are, what services are out there. As well as the services would be improved and they would be more accessible to students across campus so that all three campuses, not just the Fort Garry campus. As well as we’d be, our persons believe that we’d be very accountable to students about what’s happening and what’s going on with what we’re doing.

How can UMSU make or save more money?

I believe by offering better service, food options at Degrees, GPAs, and IQs, as well expanding will bring more revenue on board. We could also look at more cost-effective ways of purchasing things across, for what we do, I mean what they do within the office or within the union as a whole.

What are your goals or projects for the year?

I really like the idea of bringing in foreign new services for UMSU. So looking at an instant photo printer at Digital Copy Centre, expanding GPAs so it offers fast, healthy food options, as well as looking at offering new food at Degrees and as well as expanding the seating at Degrees and IQs. As well, I want to look into expanding the Health and Dental plan to offer glasses, contacts, and all wisdom teeth extractions because I know that’s a big thing for all students who, that’s not currently covered.

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Jackson Duong  | Mitch Tripple

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What experience do you bring to this position?

Wll, in high school [Gordon Bell], I was the student council president there. [ . . . ]back then, our student council was just only less than 20 members.And they were the ones who were going to decide who the student council were and when i found out about that, I realized that that wasn’t really fair or really truly representing the student body.[ . . . ] So eventually, it was a long process, but eventually I was able to allow an open wide election. And I eventually won the election as well.

And I’m also on the Arts Student Council right now. And it’s been a really good experience for me as well. I’ve only been there very shortly, but overall, so far, it’s been really enjoyable.

How would UMSU be different if you were in office?

I do believe that many students don’t know what kind of resources they have available to them and one of my goals is to let students know that they shouldn’t be intimidated to come up to look for information. And also at the same time should have information easily available in front of them. And also let students know that when they want something to be addressed that it will acually be brought to attention of UMSU, and also all levels of univeristy and the administration as well, because again many people don’t get the opportunity to speak up or don’t get a chance to get their issues addressed.

What are your goals or projects for the year?

Well, the thing is, first of all it’s all about information. We’ll make a lot more UMSU-related information available out there. Because I noticed on our site currently there’s not too much information available. Since we’re the ones who are contributing money to UMSU, so we should all have the right to have information readily available.

And also I want to create a new form. A type of communication channel, that will allow students who want to confront, or make any issues addressed to student council a lot easier. We haven’t worked on the exact details on it, but we want to create something where students will not feel intimidated to bring issues up tp the student union.

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What experience do you bring to this position?

I’ve been a member of the Peers students helping students program for hte past two years. and that’s given me a lot of insight as to the resources that are avilable to students on campus. And it’s opened my eyes to the fact that a lot of these resources are underused. And I believe that that’s definitely something that students united woud be able to increase the communication of, do better able to show the students where these resources are and how to better use them.

How would UMSU be different if you were in office?

I believe UMSU would be more open to the students. A student could come the office and speak with any member of the executive and be able to ensure that their voice is heard. I believe that as Students United, we would be put more information out there. We’d re-do the website, ensuring that it was more user-friendly, making sure that students have easy access to the infromation rather than having to dig and research for it.

I believe that in addition to that that I in particular would fight for students’ rights on and off campus, making sure that they’re not being abused or neglected and if they are, being able to show them the proper avenues to repair that damage.

What are your goals or projects for the year?

‘ve got a number in mind. One of the first ones I’d be implementing would be an awareness campaign as to the resources available to students on campus. I would be out there, using a number of mediums to make sure that we know about such services as the learning assistance centre, as peers students helping students. In addition to the student advocacy services, and even the advocacy services that i would be providing. In addition to that I am looking at developing an online exam database so previous year’s exams can be accessed online.

So students, science students in particualar, would have access to old exams, and be better able to prepare not only with the content but the actual test taking process.

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Shawn Dingwall  | Serena Heska  | Sid Rashid

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What experience do you bring to this position?

Well I actually haven’t been in student politics very much but I’m, I’d say just when I see something wrong in especially in politics and that, I like to make change and everything like that. I don’t want to get into my platform too much but,like, there are things that need to be changed. People’s tendencies aren’t to change. Everyone wants things to stay the same but every once in awhile, you need someone to step up and say ‘you may not like this, but it has to be done.’ So, that kind of thing. We’re going to bring a new point of view I guess, to answer that question.

What are your goals or projects for the year?

For my SS position, a lot of reorganization of funds would be going on for the student groups. Some people might not like the fact that, we want, we’re trying to save the school money because we’re a horribly under-funded school and we need that money for educational purposes, not just- we can’t just spend that money on student groups. So we might be pulling back a lot of the funding for student groups in order to help the school itself. Because having student groups, because we have loads of student groups at the U of M and it’s nice to have them all but this school is here to educate people. It’s nice to have fun and have all these fraternities and stuff around but we need money for education and not just student groups.

What do you think differentiates you from the other candidates and what would you say to students about why they should vote for you?

Well I assume that nobody else is running for VPSS with this platform. I haven’t seen the other platforms yet, so I can’t say that for sure but in general most people tend to take the safe route. They’ll say lower tuition, Increase funding to students and that. I doubt anyone else is going in my direction and they should vote for me because these changes may not be popular but they need to be done.

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What experience do you bring to this position?

I have always been involved in student politics and politics in general from an early age, an area I’ve been passionate about. At a university level, I have been involved with the Arts Student Body Council for the past two years; I was the chair during my first term and currently I am serving as the Director of Social Programming which is pretty similar to the UMSU position that I am applying. The position has me directly creating and overseeing the social and event aspects that are hosted for the students in the faculty of Arts. This involves working with different students groups and councils on campus.

What are your goals or projects for the year?

The Student Group Resource Center has great potential that could easily be used more efficiently. By allowing groups to book this center for hosting small events and changing the resources center’s coordinator responsibility to help advertise and book venues student group event the student groups and students would gain by this additional exposure. Continued growth of supporting our Bison Pride [ . . .] and expanding UMSU support beyond our football teams to our other bison sports. Working with the Career Services Center to expand and market it’s resources especially during the ending of the second semester when many students are looking for summer jobs or graduating and looking to start their careers. Working with the university to find the resources and funding to extend library hours, especially on weekends, we were told that apparently the biggest obstacle was finding the funding.

What do you think differentiates you from the other candidates and what would you say to students about why they should vote for you?

I can tell you about my own personal philosophy about what students should expect from a candidate who is running for a position union that’s principle is to service students. As a paying student I should expect that the candidate would ensure a standard of academia from my university that is competitive both national and international. I would expect that my that my potential union leader would keep me informed of my rights, decisions that affects me, services they would provide and serve to advocate for my rights when they are infringed.

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What experience do you bring to this position?

I believe I have a pretty diverse background. I’ve been involved in a lot of programming. I’ve lived on campus for four years now. I’m the senior resident advisor at Arthur Mauro and the position of Student Services is a lot of programming, a lot of different events, and the senior resident advisor, I’m in charge of implementing a portfolio for 1,200 students and the academic portfolio for me. And so I run a lot of programs through that. Coming from a small community, I was very involved in Morden. I think I can relate to a lot of different rural students coming into the University of Manitoba cause I’ve been through the whole transition.

What are your goals or projects for the year?

I have a lot of different ideas that I’d love to implement if I was given the opportunity. I have an idea of a winter carnival for students that like the outdoors, a heated beer tent, music, games, tons of other beverages, warm, cold. I have the idea of incorporating world travel into social, academic and cultural programming and I believe that’s huge for students to experience a different culture and socialize in that culture and learn academically in different cultures. So examples are study service tours, alternative spring breaks are ideas of mine. International students week, showcases for student groups to promote their events, a second term orientation day so new students can get introduced to the new campus and many other ideas.

What do you think differentiates you from the other candidates and what would you say to students about why they should vote for you?

I have a lot of different ideas that I’d love to implement if I was given the opportunity. I have an idea of a winter carnival for students that like the outdoors, a heated beer tent, music, games, tons of other beverages, warm, cold. I have the idea of incorporating world travel into social, academic and cultural programming and I believe that’s huge for students to experience a different culture and socialize in that culture and learn academically in different cultures. International students week, showcases for student groups to promote their events, a second term orientation day so new students can get introduced to the new campus and many other ideas.

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