Presidential Candidates
As chief executive officer of the corporation and chair of the board of directors, the president oversees all aspects of student governent. The president represents undergraduates to the university administration, senate, and board of governors. <a href="https://archive.uwimprint.ca/article/4004-imprint-media-debate-presidential-candidates" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Click here to watch the full presidential debate.</a>
Moe Bdeir
<strong>How do you plan on being accountable to students?</strong>
“[...] ensure that students know what they want and their opinions are heard [...] we have to find a better way to engage them…”
<strong>What are your plans for addressing student space issues on campus?</strong>
“Basically, we need to consult students, that’s the most important thing...”
<strong>Name your top three priorities.</strong>
“I want more informal consultation sessions [...] getting more involvement of students in Feds [...] and lastly, I want to re-engage first years.”
Danielle Burt
<strong>How do you plan on being accountable to students?</strong>
“Knowing what your promise is to students and being able to rationalize is this possible? Is this feasible to get this on campus?”
<strong>What are your plans for addressing student space issues on campus?</strong>
“[...] finding those gaps where we can put students and use space more effectively. ”
<strong>Name your top three priorities.</strong>
“[...] orientation week. Continuing that as a brand of Feds [...]”
“[…] mental health awareness on campus and really fighting that stigma and making students more aware of the services […] they have.”
Jesse McGinnis
<strong>How do you plan on being accountable to students?</strong>
“[...] to communicate with you regularly [...] Have two-way discussions so you know what we’re doing [...] we’re going to release an open budget…”
<strong>What are your plans for addressing student space issues on campus?</strong>
“[...] to continue improving space across campus on Waterloo Space Committee [...] I want to renovate the SLC [...] I want you to vote on a new space proposal [...]”
<strong>Name your top three priorities.</strong>
“[...] space”
“I want to create more opportunities in Feds [...] And I want to keep working with O-Week. I want students to continue to drive the direction that orientation goes in.”
Operations & Finance Candidates
The VP operations and finance oversees finance and administration, including annual budgets, human resources, and employee training. <a href="https://archive.uwimprint.ca/article/4007-imprint-media-debate-vp-operations-and" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Click here to watch the full VPOF debate.</a>
Raghda Sabry
<strong>How do you plan on keeping Feds finances transparent to students?</strong>
“[...] it’s important for the students to understand the budget that we release for them. Using existing social media platforms like [the] Feds website we’ll be able to and starting the budget process earlier so that we can make it clear.”
<strong>What kind of experience do you have specifically with finance and budgets?</strong>
“A lot of the part-time jobs I’ve had, we have these small responsibilities of handling budgeting for the day or for the shift or whatever it is. Other than, bigger responsibilities. I’ve yet to be responsible for stuff like that…”
<strong>What are your plans to release a draft budget, when will you have the final budget ready?</strong>
“[...] electing a budget committee during the general meetings that they could start collecting… earlier, [...] to have them ready as early as we can.”
Elizabeth McFaul
<strong>How do you plan on keeping Feds finances transparent to students?</strong>
“ [...] release … the executive budget within the first month giving students enough time to see what the priorities are for the year.”
“also keeping regular updates on the promises we’re making.”
<strong>What kind of experience do you have specifically with finance and budgets?</strong>
“As president of Mathsoc I oversaw the Mathsoc budget…that’s about a $50,000 budget. I’ve also had a lot of experience in my business background in finance in the accounting side, looking even at the larger scale corporations...”
<strong>What are your plans to release a draft budget, when will you have the final budget ready?</strong>
“[...] releasing an exact draft budget within the first month of being in office.”
Ben Balfour
<strong>How do you plan on keeping Feds finances transparent to students?</strong>
“Making sure that the budget is available to students [...] to have them interact with it and get their feedback on it.”
“[…] holding focus groups or holding …committees.”
<strong>What kind of experience do you have specifically with finance and budgets?</strong>
“[...] through my experience with Federation orientation committee, I was [...] responsible for both the budget and sponsorship for the week. As well as through recreation and sport business, I deal a lot with not-for-profit financing in my courses.”
<strong>What are your plans to release a draft budget, when will you have the final budget ready?</strong>
“[...] the budget needs to come out as soon as possible [...] getting in contact with [the Feds accountant] [...] and making sure that communication is open will allow me to communicate with students what is realistic.”
VP Education Candidates
The VP education is concerned with academic and co-op issues and processes. He or she lobbies for improvement to academic services and access to quality higher education.<a href="https://archive.uwimprint.ca/article/4006-imprint-media-debate-vp-education-candidates" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Click here to watch the full VPED debate.</a>
Stephane Hamade
<strong>What is your stance on the UPASS referendum and specifically how will you personally be voting?</strong>
“I will be voting yes. The GRT and the UPASS is an absolutely necessary thing for students. [...] it is very important that we do keep this UPASS as it is the main method of transportation for nearly all students...”
<strong>What is your position on the Feds membership in OUSA?</strong>
I’m very supportive of OUSA. I mean it’s a great organization [...] I attended the last two CGAs and they’re [...] very effective
<strong>Do you have any plans to combat rising tuition costs for students?</strong>
“OUSA’s been working on [this issue]. [...] It was a five per cent increase to tuition and now it will be three per cent, so I’d like to continue working on tuition with OUSA with the provincial government.”
Luke McIntosh
<strong>What is your stance on the UPASS referendum and specifically how will you personally be voting?</strong>
“[...] it’s a great move because it allows students to see where their fees are increasing. Personally, I think the UPASS is extremely beneficial for students...”
<strong>What is your position on the Feds membership in OUSA?</strong>
“I [...] support OUSA entirely. It would be very hard for us as the University of Waterloo to lobby the provincial government and get the same results that they do with their group of other undergraduate universities.”
<strong>Do you have any plans to combat rising tuition costs for students?</strong>
“OUSA has done a very good job to regulating tuition to three per cent for domestic students. Although…is looking at the international student tuition because it is not regulated.
Renishaki Kamal
<strong>What is your stance on the UPASS referendum and specifically how will you personally be voting?</strong>
“I personally vote for the pass. [...] If the fees do go up, they need to step up their game and give us more service.”
<strong>What is your position on the Feds membership in OUSA?</strong>
“I believe OUSA is a very important student alliance to be part of especially being a delegate who participated in the past two general assemblies”
<strong>Do you have any plans to combat rising tuition costs for students?</strong>
“[...] non-degree terms for students who switch or transfer from term to term or faculty to another faculty. [...] For example, if they’re in Engineering and switching over to Arts the costs are based on the arts courses.”
VP Internal Candidates
The VP internal supervises Feds services, UW’s student clubs and services, society accountability, and projects and commissions. The VPIN communicates with colleges and residence councils. Additionally, he or she represents student issues within Feds to the university and community. <a href="https://archive.uwimprint.ca/article/4005-imprint-media-debate-vp-internal-candidates" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Click here to watch the full VPIN debate.</a>
<em>Note:</em> Team Green’s Saleem Khan could not attend the debate citing a family emergency, but was later interviewed by <em>Imprint </em>with the same questions asked at the debate.
Anjali Gopal
<strong>What is the first issue you will raise to UW admin as VP Internal?</strong>
“[...] increasing mental health resources on campus”
<strong>Off-campus shuttle vs. WalkSafe — which one do you support?</strong>
“[...] improve both services.”
“[...] investigate the WalkSafe program more and see how it can be more effectively used on our own campus.”
<strong>How are you going to develop and support the club culture on campus?</strong>
“[...] creating an event calendar and an involvement compass.”
Saleem Khan
<strong>What is the first issue you will raise to UW admin as VP Internal?</strong>
“[...] a mediation room where students could have comfy chairs, massage chairs, and Vitamin D bulbs [...] a weekly puppy room where [students] can just enjoy some pets [...]”
<strong>Off-campus shuttle vs. WalkSafe — which one do you support?</strong>
“[...] both of them have their own value [...]”
“[...] the frequency of shuttle should be much higher in winter, and in summer you can have WalkSafe and shuttles running simultaneously.”
<strong>How are you going to develop and support the club culture on campus?</strong>
“Start a club library which can be a simple room with some shelves where multiple clubs can come in and stack their books.”
“[...] an event mobile application which has all the events listed by all the clubs.”
Maaz Yasin
<strong>What is the first issue you will raise to UW admin as VP Internal?</strong>
“Prayer space on campus.”
“Sustainable campus initiative on sustainability on campus.”
<strong>Off-campus shuttle vs. WalkSafe — which one do you support?</strong>
“[...] The off-campus shuttle is a very valuable service [...]”
“[...] looking into ways to creating a WalkSafe program that helps students [...]”
<strong>How are you going to develop and support the club culture on campus?</strong>
“Establishing a clubs support team”
