The Strand sat down with Jared Connoy, the sole candidate for Sustainability Commissioner in the VUSAC spring election. Connoy has held this position since the fall 2017 election and is running for re-election.
Tell us about your environmental work. What makes you the right person for this position?
I’ve done volunteer work with a lot of environmental organizations, both in Canada and abroad. I’ve especially done a lot of work with environmental groups on campus, being in the Environmental Student’s Union, University of Toronto Environmental Action, and groups like that. As I’m running for re-election—so obviously I’ve spent two years as the Sustainability Commissioner, so there’s that. But yes, I’ve definitely tried to make the most of those connections in the past year in pursuing collaborations and things like that because we have an incredibly valuable experience and have increasing turnout [to sustainability events].
You’ve now held the position of Sustainability Commissioner for a year and a half. How do you feel you have implemented your campaign platform?
I definitely feel that all of the goals I campaigned on have been achieved. I campaigned on composting, I campaigned on a food waste campaign in Burwash, and I campaigned on creating an overall sense of environmental community at Vic. Composting for the first time at Vic was implemented at Annesley. There is a Burwash food waste campaign that is currently up and will soon be expanding. And in terms of environmental community, it’s hard to quantify and give a yes or no answer, but I think through our different events, specifically our Doc & Talks, people have really come to appreciate them and always come back to them because they really, really enjoy coming and they enjoy the discussions and I’m usually seeing the same faces, so I would say that that was achieved in itself.
Describe your Sustainability platform for this term. What’s different?
I think my platform is extremely different this year just given all the things I’ve learned in the past year as Sustainability Commissioner. I think the biggest thing is sort of putting pressure and working with admin to formalize sustainability as a commitment for the administration. And that kind of comes from the last year and working on and implementing initiatives being difficult because there’s no one in the administration to really go to when it comes to sustainability. It’s also very difficult, as a student group, to implement initiatives just given the structure of Vic and Vic’s administration.
So, what I’m going to be focusing on for the next year, and this is already something I’ve begun doing this year, is working very, very closely with administration and using the different tools to get them to formalize sustainability and to develop plans with them specifically for the future of Vic sustainability. So concrete plans that the administration can follow for the future and plans that can be made available to students so they can see where their college is going in terms of sustainability, because at this point in time, the future of sustainability is very uncertain, and I think that students should know what their college is planning to do in the future.
That’s the main piece of my platform, but, I’d say a lot of it would be expanding the initiatives I implemented this year, especially composting; I want to see it everywhere at Vic, not just at Annesley, and granted, any new initiatives that come up, because a lot of the initiatives come by way of students at the meetings, who say “I want to do this” or “this would be a good idea.” That’s how a lot of initiatives get started, so continuing to implement new initiatives and continuing to provide programming that we have this year [would be ideal].
Can you elaborate on the hurdles you have faced working with Vic’s administration?
I think the first thing that’s incredibly difficult is when you have an idea of an initiative and you don’t know who to go to. So just navigating the channels of administration to get to the right person takes a long time and is difficult.
Secondly, given that sustainability isn’t in the job description of anyone in the administration, no one in the administration is necessarily a perfect fit for any given initiative. So it’s just not always effective to be trying to implement an initiative with someone who does not necessarily… it’s not part of their job description.
Third, the process of working with administration in general is just a very lengthy process. Obviously they’re busy people, and I think a lot of [those issues] has to do with again, sustainability not being a part of the portfolio of anyone within the administration. They have other job requirements and duties that they have to be taking care, so it’s not an efficient system, having students try to run all these initiatives and admin not actively playing a role in that.
Last term you were a contested candidate. This term, as running as an uncontested candidate, how will you maintain accountability within your position?
First off, I really tried to keep it to myself that I was going to be running prior to the election because I didn’t want to discourage anyone from running because I know it can be daunting, running against someone who is running for re-election. But in terms of in the position, I think I’ve definitely proven in the last year that I’m definitely dedicated to the role, and that’s absolutely why I’m running—it’s because I’m dedicated to the work I’ve been doing at Vic. In terms of staying accountable, my work is well advertised, not only in my meetings, but in the VUSAC meetings, which are in the minutes, which are available to the VCU. I think that there are definitely a lot of mechanisms to hold VUSAC members accountable, and I mean, I’m definitely going to continue to give it my 100 percent because at the end of the day, I’m running because I care about promoting sustainability at Vic, not for any other reasons.
What do you think needs to change about Vic’s sustainability efforts, and do you specifically plan on using your platform to bring forth these changes?
Continuing with [my views on] the administration, I think as soon as sustainability becomes a part of the administration in the formal sense, implementing initiatives will become much, much easier and I also think it is going to pave the way from here on out for all the sustainability commissioners to be working very closely with the administration to be able to implement initiatives. That being said, I don’t want to make it sound like I’m passing off responsibility to admin to pursue these things, I just think that in order for the Sustainability Commissioner to be doing the job efficiently, they need someone in the administration they can go to, just because at this point in time, the work that is involved as Sustainability Commissioner [moves] incredibly slow and is inefficient. So the Sustainability Commissioner would be definitely very independent of the administration, and would still be in control of their operations and their ideas and what not. I don’t want it to seem like the administration would be taking over the role, but I think it’s nonetheless extremely important that the administration backs the sustainability commissioner for things to move along. They don’t need to be coming up with the ideas for initiatives and running the initiatives, but they definitely need to be there to be available for support for the commission.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
