We sat down with Vice-President, External candidate George Wilson to find out more about his experience and his plans for the position if elected.
First of all, what sort of experience and skills would you bring to the role of VPE?
The two main bodies of my experience have been serving as a councilor on VUSAC this past year, and serving as Burwash President. The best part about being a councilor on VUSAC is that you get to have experience with a lot of different portfolios – from working on Highball, to helping reform the budget steering committee. The fact that the councilor is a voting member means that you have to be informed on every issue; you can’t just pick the issues that are important to you and only know about them. You are expected to vote and be informed on everything. There have been a lot problems expressed regarding communication, and I think that the councilors have probably been the biggest victims in the breakdown of this communication. The position has helped to instill the importance of top-down communication from the judiciary, through commissioners, and all the way to councilors.
My experience as Burwash President has also provided me with valuable skills for the role both by being one of the most important bodies that the VPE deals with, but also through my experience dealing with other bodies such as the Dean’s office – building presidents are one of the few student representatives who have to have a formal relationship with the Dean’s office. I have also gained a lot of experience running a council. Running and chairing Burwash meetings isn’t the same size as running and chairing VUSAC meetings, but, my experience on the judiciary provided me with helpful leadership experiences.
The role of VPE is a pretty big one – you’re dealing with everything outside of VUSAC, student groups at Vic, administration, the UTSU and other outside groups. How do you plan to attack the role? Is there anything you intend to prioritize?
The VPE is probably the biggest portfolio besides the presidency. You deal with bodies at Vic, at the university as a whole, and, officially every body that is not a part of VUSAC falls to you. The good thing is that a lot of the bodies that the VPE deals with, as I brought up in the last question, I have experience with: I know how to work with residence presidents because I have been one and I have had to work with the Dean’s office. In the past two years, we’ve had very externally oriented presidents, which has helped the VPE a lot and allowed them to focus on other things. The presidents often provided help with the UTSU issues.
I think people want a VPE that is more Vic oriented and they want the external portfolio to be more Vic-oriented— they are happy that we were integral in reforming the UTSU board but we need to give more attention to collaborating with residence presidents or our relationship with the Dean’s office. I think what I would put first is talking with students to get a sense of what issues they think haven’t been given enough importance and attention, and putting those first. Often, an issue that hasn’t been talked about will only get worse if it’s ignored.
This year especially, the relationship between VUSAC and the Dean’s office has been strained at times. These issues can definitely be related to the nature of the relationship between a student government and their Dean’s office, and the differing interests at play. How do you plan to create a positive relationship with the Dean’s office as VPE?
The relationship with the Dean’s office is very interesting as very little of it is formal. As there is a need to work with the Dean’s office, whether that is for institutional support or for monetary purposes, it has become an unwritten part of VUSAC. People always like to focus on what the Dean’s office gives to us and that part of the relationship. But, that part of the relationship is obviously reciprocal. What we provide to the Dean’s office is student feedback and student consultation on pretty much everything they do. I think that the Dean’s office generally does find this important. They often have student representatives on their committees and I think that the best way to improve that relationship is to ensure that the students on those committees are appointed in consultation with VUSAC. Ensuring that we’re communicative with the Dean’s office about that is essential. Good communication will help the student body, because we will end up with students on those committees with the interests of all Vic students, rather than just their own, which is a risk. I think that that is what the problem is a lot of the time – those students not understanding the best interests of the Vic student body. Working together to find out what students actually want is the best way to fix the relationship.
It’s your first week as VPE, what’s the first thing you do?
That’s an interesting question. One thing that a lot of people have talked about as the year has gone on is something that didn’t exist at the start of the year but something that has been popular: out-of-office hours. Alex adopted this idea as a result of the UTSU’s accountability cafés. Once they realized how successful it was and since getting more student feedback, it became a weekly program. As much as we like to make the VUSAC office welcoming, people often feel uncomfortable coming inside. Instead, holding office hours in places where student feel comfortable such as the Cat’s Eye and Ned’s has been a great initiative. The first thing I would focus on is reforming out-of-office hours. If we have them every week, that would be a lot. Having a theme to each session—one week could be on Highball with the Scarlett and Gold Commissioner—we’re going to get a lot of student input on that which we normally wouldn’t. Students often have to go to late Friday night meetings that last for 4 hours to talk about these things, which just isn’t accessible to a lot of people— even the ones who can often find it too hard. This would allow for a lot more student feedback, and feedbacks from the broader community, not just the “Vic bubble” as people like to call it.
Why is it important to you to be involved in student life at Vic?
We’re so lucky at Vic to be at a college where the student council has both the power and money to make a difference in the community. From running events to advocating for student interests, VUSAC has the ability to significantly enrich student life. Having the capability to influence these decisions and create a better Vic community is something I love being involved in, and hope to continue doing.
What’s something about yourself that most people at Vic don’t know?
I learned today at a Vic event that my blood type is O negative, which means I can give blood to anyone. I like to think of this as an analogy for my relationship with the students of Vic, because I want to be able to give to every student as Vice President External.
Voting takes place from Saturday, March 19 through to Wednesday, March 23 online at voting.utoronto.ca
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