1. Why are you running for councillor?
The main reason that I am running for councillor is that I want to be able to create positive change in the Vic community, and acting as a councillor is the most versatile way to do so. I have many ideas that would cover multiple different portfolios and aspects of life at Vic, specifically with regards to academics and environmental sustainability. As a councillor, I could work with various different members of VUSAC to see my ideas come to fruition.
As for why I am running for VUSAC at all, that becomes more personal. I am a first-year student, so I have dealt with the confusion and anxiety that accompanies many of us when we transition to university. I have noticed many of my peers struggling to organize themselves and make sense of this new environment alongside myself. I am excited to be at Vic, but there are areas of improvement that I would want to act on through any platform that allows me to do so. My goal would be to advocate for first-year students, and to allow our voices to be heard in what can often seem like an overwhelmingly large and complex system.
2. What sets you apart from other candidates?
From what I have seen from the other candidates, they all seem to be amazing people with great ideas. I would be happy to work with any of them as councillors, and I wish everyone the best of luck in this election.
With that said, I believe that what sets me apart is a combination of the experience I have and the plans I would want to bring forward. Having participated in both my high school’s Green Club and Academic Council, I am no stranger to either of these portfolios. On the Academic front, I have both organized and spoken on panels giving academic advice to younger students, facilitated mentorship programs between students, and worked on various other projects mainly focused on allowing students to help other students. I want everyone to have easy access to all academic resources available to them, and would use my experience to make that happen as VUSAC councillor.
I also have a fair amount of experience organizing environmental sustainability initiatives such as my high school’s Tower Garden where we grew our own organic produce, an eco-friendly gift-wrapping station around the holidays, and a vermiculture compost system. I also organized a community tree planting that was unfortunately cancelled due to the pandemic. I would love to have the chance to implement some of these programs that have worked well previously here at Vic!
While I will detail my ideas more under question four, most of them stem (pun intended) from these two passions of mine. I want to create a better environment at Vic, both in the literal sense and the figurative one. I strongly believe that I have the experience and the drive necessary for accomplishing this goal, and I hope that you will take that into account when voting for councillors!
3. What commissions would you like to work on and why?
If you have not already guessed from my previous answers, my top two choices would be the Academic and Sustainability commissions. These portfolios are where I feel like I have the most to bring to the table in terms of both experience and ideas. Not only would my contributions to VUSAC be best here, but it is always where my own personal interests and passions lie. Although I would be happy to help any commissions, as I believe that they are all doing amazing work, I believe that either the Academic or Sustainability commissions would be the best fit.
4. Do you have any personal ideas or projects that you would like to take up as a part of the VUSAC Council?
My short answer is yes; I have tons of ideas and projects that I would like to take on as part of the VUSAC council. My ideas fall into two main categories based on the commissions I would want to work on. For Academic, I believe one of the main issues facing first year students in particular is the overwhelming amount of academic resources available to us. Make no mistake, these are all great programs, but the sheer number of them can get confusing and difficult to navigate. I am sure that there are a multitude that most of us do not even know about. Pair this with multiple different UofT websites we have to regularly check that send multiple emails every day, and you get a group of first-year students that have no idea where to start or what to look for when it comes to academic resources. I would like to centralize links to all of this information on one website that would be easily accessible for everyone. I also believe that a schedule for professors’ office hours would be extremely helpful for students to have. Finally, I would want to organize an anonymous Q&A forum for first years to ask upper-year students questions about life at Vic and UofT. This would destigmatize asking what people may believe to be “stupid questions”, and allow people to get the answers they need. With regards to my ideas for the Sustainability Commission, I would greatly appreciate the opportunity to introduce some of the projects I worked on at my old school. One specific idea would be to create an eco-friendly gift-wrapping station near the winter holidays, where a group of volunteers would collect used newspapers and other recyclables to be used for gift wrapping. Anyone in the Vic community could bring a gift they want wrapped, and volunteers would use the recycled goods to wrap their gift. I have also noticed a major issue with the current take-out food system at Burwash and the amount of wasted containers in the trash every day. My first solution to this would be to allow students to bring their own reusable containers to be filled by the dining hall staff, though I do understand that this may be difficult given the current pandemic restrictions. Alternatively, I would want to improve recycling signage and introduce a more prevalent composting system to mitigate the number of containers being thrown in the garbage. I believe that all of these ideas would be beneficial to students at Vic, and hope to be able to take on these projects over the course of this year!
5. What will you do if you do not win?
If I do not win, I cannot deny that I will likely be a bit upset at first. I would very much like to be a VUSAC councillor, but one small bump in the road will not discourage me from seeing my goals through and enacting change. I will apply to other leadership positions, both within VUSAC and outside of it, because I am determined to help this new community however I can. However, I am optimistic in hoping that I will be elected as councillor, and that VUSAC will be the platform I use to discuss my ideas.
6. Give your personal review of the Northrop Frye McDonald’s.
I will admit that prior to this interview, I had no idea about the Northrop Frye McDonald’s. So, after some time spent on Reddit (the single most reliable source), I decided to try to find it for myself. After one of my Vic One classes this week (shoutout to all the Schawlow people reading this), I descended to the basement of Northrop Frye and saw it. Now, typically, I am not a huge fan of McDonald’s, but this was amazing. The 20% student discount was enough to convince me at first, but then I realized that the chicken nuggets were actually made with real chicken. It was delicious, cheap, and there was no line to wait in. 10/10, I wish we were allowed to spend Vic Dollars there.
