The Queen's Journal, Issue 29
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Transcript of The Queen's Journal, Issue 29
AMS ELECTIONS
Serving student needs
At the AMS presidential candidate debate on Jan. 26, hopefuls Morgan Campbell (left) of Team CES and Sacha Gudmundsson (right) of Team SDL discussed their respective governing approaches to AMS politics.
PHOTO BY JUSTIN TANG
For winter election coverage, see: - Student Trustees, page 2 - MCRC, page 4 - Engineering Society, page 5 - AMS continued on pages 7, 8
AMS ELECTIONS
Electing a student approachBY KATHERINE FERNANDEZ-BLANCE AND JESSICA FISHBEINJournal Staff
While teams CES and SDL have
big plans on how to get students
involved in the AMS, their ways of
approaching students vary.
Team CES said they will
actively work on initiatives to
encourage student involvement
and create awareness within the
student government.
One way team CES plans to foster
student involvement is by using an
improved website to communicate
with students.
“We want to go with a professional
organization [to redesign the
website] because we’re investing in
resources we’re providing students
to ensure that students know what
the AMS is,” vice-presidential
(Operations) candidate Ashley
Eagan, ArtSci ’11 said.
The website would include
content from AMS commissions,
the AMS council and AMS
managers as well as pages from
campus groups that provide
unique services.
“This would come at an additional
cost of $6,000 which works well
within the AMS’s financial resources
and wouldn’t come at an increased
cost to students,” Slobodin said.
Presidential candidate Morgan
Campbell said an online campus
calendar that could be updated
by students and clubs themselves,
would allow the AMS to better
communicate with students and
would act as an umbrella site for all
AMS campus events.
Team CES also hopes to attract
more students to the AMS by
making some of its regular meetings,
BY KATHERINE FERNANDEZ-BLANCE AND JESSICA FISHBEINJournal Staff
Mid-way through their campaigns,
AMS executive teams SDL and
CES are finding out their platform
points may not be as achievable as
originally thought.
After contemplating an LCBO
in the Queen’s Centre in their
original platform, Team SDL has
since reconsidered this initiative
and is instead emphasizing
other options.
Current City of Kingston
bylaws don’t allow for an LCBO
on campus space, vice-presidential
(Operations) candidate Dan
Szcezpanek of Team SDL said.
“This is no longer feasible
and pretty much removed. The
bylaw doesn’t allow for a grocery
store either, but a pharmacy is still
feasible,” Szcezpanek, ArtSci ’11,
said. “The LCBO was never made
a promise. It was an idea suggested
and the focus was to try to raise
discussion and provide a list of
suggestions over what students
want to fill that space.”
Kingston’s bylaw 8499
Restricted Area Zone Section 71
outlines the kinds of businesses that
can exist on University property. A
grocer is not on this list.
Team CES is suggesting a grocer
or pharmacy as a new project for
the vacant Queen’s Centre retail
space. There have been talks of
bringing a pharmacy into the
Queen’s Centre since 2005.
The Journal has learned that
without amending this bylaw, a
grocery store on campus is not
feasible. The bylaw does allow for
these restrictions to be lifted if the
grocer was to become a University
or AMS owned business.
“There is a way to get around this
and that’s through partnerships,”
presidential candidate for Team
CES Morgan Campbell said. “It’s a
long-term lobbying effort.”
Team CES said that if the grocer
partnered with the administration
and the AMS, they would have a
bigger voice when negotiating with
the city about the bylaw.
Campbell, ArtSci ’11, said
that after meeting with the
Vice-Principal (Facilities) Ann
Browne, no concerns about the
zoning bylaw were raised.
Team CES vice-president
(Operations) candidate Ashley
Eagan said the earliest the services
could be opened would be
September 2011.
“The administration and current
AMS executive are working with
brokers right now. We want to
work with the current executives to
bring these services in immediately,”
Eagan, ArtSci ’11, said.
Eagan said Team CES would
ensure that the grocer doesn’t
compete with the already existing
farmer’s market on campus.
“We might even be able to
promote the farmer’s market at
the grocer. The farmer’s market
sells very unique items, while the
grocer would just sell very basic
things,” Eagan said. Team CES also
plans to bring back the spirit to
varsity athletic games by offering an
incentive program to students who
See It’s a on page 8
See It doesn’t on page 8
FR IDAY , JANUARY 28 , 2 011 — I S SUE 29
THE JOURNALQ U E E N ’ S U N I V E R S I T Y — C A N A DA ’ S O L D E S T S T U D E N T N E W S PA P E R — S I N C E 1 8 7 3
TUNEFUL TONGUES
Montréal textural electro
Journal
PAGE 18
MATT O’DONNELL
PAGE 23
NO HOMECOMING GRUDGE
PAGE 3
AMS SUPPORTERS WEIGH IN
PAGE 11
2012 APOCALYPSE
PAGE 28
HEALTH
& WELLNESS
BODY IMAGE
PAGE 12
SAD SEASON
PAGE 15
IMMUNE SYSTEM
PAGE 13
ELECTIONS
Entrusting studentsBY LABIBA HAQUEAssistant News Editor
With five candidates campaigning
for the two-year position of
undergraduate student trustee,
they all share one common goal:
to make the student voice heard on
the Board of Trustees.
Traditionally, responsibilities
of the Board include making
financial decisions, appointing
the principal and the vice-
principals and overlooking other
fiduciary responsibilities.
The Board of Trustees is one of
the highest decision making-bodies.
It is comprised of 25 members;
three are student representatives,
the university rector and a graduate
and undergraduate representative.
Patrick Allin, ArtSci ’13, said the
student trustee must be aware of
the University’s financial situation.
“I developed my platform [with
the fact that Queen’s] will be
cutting $70 million from its budget
over the next three years in order
to meet its needed goal,” he said,
adding that he tried to determine
the University’s spending priorities
in putting together his platform.
“For the Board of Trustees,
which is made up of a number
of corporate executives that have
been removed from the classroom
for many years, these issues aren’t
apparent and don’t always come
to light,” he said. “So what I will
try to do is bring in questions and
bring these tough issues to light.”
Allin, who is now the director of
the AMS food centre and the chair
of the Journal Board, said he’s
going to guarantee a 24-hour email
return policy so students are able to
communicate effectively with him.
Furthermore, he wants to meet
with each faculty society to hear
their concerns.
Lauren Long, ComSci ’13, said
students often don’t know what a
trustee is or what they do.
“I hope to launch a web site that I
can update after every single board
meeting so I can engage those
issues that are discussed in them,”
she said, adding that she plans to
hire a web developer using the
undergraduate student trustee fund.
The website, which may or may
not be independent from the AMS
website, will help communicate the
on goings of the student trustees
with students.
Long, who currently serves as
the sustainability coordinator at the
Main Campus Residence’s Council
said that it’s important the student
trustee acts as a liaison between
the students and the university’s
different governing bodies.
“I would like to increase
student involvement with the
board. Currently there are only
three students, which is 12 per
cent of the vote while 43 per cent
of Queen’s finances come from
student dollars,” she said, adding
that she would like to create
opportunities in Board of Trustee
related committees for students at
large to become involved.
Student Centre Officer Stephen
Pariser, ArtSci ’11, said the role
of the undergraduate trustee is to
ensure that the student voice is
heard in financial decisions and to
offer them a student perspective on
such issues.
“For me this position really isn’t
about being a stepping stone or
about ego,” he said. “It’s about
representing the interest of Queen’s
students to the Board of Trustees, to
ensure that when they go on about
doing their operational duties …
they think about what Queen’s
students want and what they need.”
Pariser said there are five
core commitments he plans to
make if elected. The ‘TRUST’
commitments are: transparency
of information to the students,
representing students’ voices on the
Board level, understanding the role
of the student trustee, supporting
clubs, teams and individuals
and ensuring togetherness
amongst student leaders through
cooperation.
To guarantee consistent
communication between himself
and students, Pariser is proposing
a trustee webpage that has not
been continued since former
undergraduate student trustee
Michael Ceci’s first term in 2007-
2008, when the AMS server went
down and the website ceased to be
utilized.
“It is of fundamental importance
that there is a website, so we can
disseminate information to the
students,” he said.
Andrew Witzke, ArtSci ’12
and Comm ’13, said his platform
focuses on enhancing student
experience and advancing
student values.
“It’s important that we find
revenue instead of cutting costs, [so
we can] provide Queen’s students
with the quality of education that
they were expecting when they
enrolled here … that also means
that if cuts need to be made, they
don’t leave a huge impact on
students,” he said, adding that one
way in which the university can
find revenue is through investing
in businesses that would be able to
give profit back to the University.
Witzke, who represents the
Commerce society at University
Senate, said that if he is elected, he
will implement a policy to link him
with various other student groups.
This would include meeting with
all faculty societies and creating a
committee where he can sit down
with the society presidents and
AMS executives prior to every
Board of Trustees meeting.
“We can talk about the things
that Queen’s is struggling with
generally and that how we can
use specific committees or specific
members of the Board to make
sure that the issues our faculties are
struggling with are addressed,” he
said, adding that this would create
a long chain of representation and
accountability.
Witzke said he also wants to
help faculties find second year
co-op opportunities for students of
all faculties.
“I want to see if we would be
able to get a system where students
are encouraged to get into a co-op
program. I think it adds value to
your degree and it adds to your
education,” he said.
Jesse Waslowski, ArtSci ’13, said
he would like to create a more
personal relationship with students
and the faculty societies.
“Groups are important but
individuals, actual people, personal
relationships are more so,” he said.
Waslowski, an Arts and Science
representative to the AMS, sits on
both ASUS and AMS assembly.
In his platform, Waslowski
advocates the movement towards
gender-neutral pronouns in the
Queen’s constitution. This would
mean that words such as “his or
her” would be replaced with ‘the
individual’ or ‘the person.’
Waslowski said he hopes to
regularly attend different faculty
society meetings at least once a
month to learn about the different
concerns each faculty faces.
“When working with the
Board of Trustees, it’s important
to recognize that one person
represents all the undergraduate
students,” he said, adding that that
the best way to voice and lobby for
student interest at the Board level
is to create working relationships
with members on the board. “The
student trustee position is one that
can influence other bodies, such as
the principal and Board of Trustees
and that would help in us being
able to figure out a proper solution.”
Student trustee candidate Stephen Pariser, ArtSci ’11, says it’s important to disseminate information to students e!ectively.
PHOTO BY JUSTIN TANG
Candidate for student trustee Lauren Long, ComSci ’13, says she wants to launch a website to help communicate the going-ons of the Board of Trustees.
PHOTO BY CHRISTINE BLAIS
Jesse Waslowski, ArtSci ’13, says if elected to the position of undergraduate student trustee, he will advocate a change toward gender neutral pronouns in Queen’s constitution.
PHOTO BY CHRISTINE BLAIS
Student trustee candidate Patrick Allin, ArtSci ’13, says he created his platform with Queen’s budget cuts of $70 million over three years in mind.
PHOTO BYCHRISTINE BLAIS
Andrew Witzke, ArtSci ’12 and Comm ’13, says if elected as undergraduate student trustee he will use speci"c committees or speci"c members of the Board to ensure faculty issues are addressed.
PHOTO BY CHRISTINE BLAIS
Five candidates vie for the position of undergraduate student trustee
NEWS