Photo provided by Isaac Khouzam
The Strand briefly spoke to Board of Regents candidate, Isaac Khouzam, before the VUSAC 2017 Townhall.
The Strand: Why do you want to run for this position?
Isaac Khouzam: [being commuter commissioner] was basically my first experience with student governance. I had a blast, and learned a lot about leading an organization like VOCA, with the help of the exec team, and Karen, who is the co-chair. Also, about making these kind of decisions and working as part of a team and running with an organization—but I think going forward, as great as that experience was, I want to take it in a different direction. The board is a little less, obviously I won’t be organizing pancakes or movie night anymore, it’s more on the institutional side of things. Dealing with Vic as a whole and how it runs more broadly. And that’s what interested me. I can be a good fit for the role because of the things I’ve learned dong VUSAC and VOCA, and also who I am as a person, I think that I take part in those kind of discussion and contribute something to the board.
TS: How do you plan to integrate student ideas toward the board?
IK: This is something I’ve had to deal with as commuter commissioner on VUSAC, and also within VOCA, because there are a lot of different opinions that are thrown at you. It’s something I tried to incorporate into the way VOCA worked this year. We had not necessarily regulated meetings, but we made sure to meet every so often to get everyone’s ideas. I find when you’re speaking face to face you’re getting a lot more of the constructive back and forth than you would just talking to people individually online through email or Facebook. I have that experience. I think when I’m on the board talking to people outside, face-to-face, trying to gage the way people feel about things at Vic, then I can put that all together and represent that at the board.
TS: What would be the main core values while sitting on the board?
IK: Equity and inclusivity, obviously. Try to represent as broad a base at Vic as possible, while also being open to new ideas to discussion. Obviously other people sitting on the board are far more experienced. In all senses I’ll be one of the least experienced people there if I get elected—being willing to listen to other people, may change the way I approach things, but we will see.
