<strong>What do you consider to be your greatest achievement?</strong>
<strong>C: </strong>I think that I’m really proud of the First Year Friendly at the Bomber ... to make Open Mic Tuesday and Trivia Thursday all ages. We went ahead and opened up Open Mic Tuesday as all ages every week and Trivia Thursday was all ages for two times last term ... I would like to think that first year students have really been enjoying that … a lot of that came from when I was a don last year and my students would say that “what can I do” and I’d be like “oh nothing.”... We’ve done more of a push during Orientation week and you can see the first year friendly logo outside of the Bomber just to let first year students know, you can go in there.
<strong>What projects do you hope to continue in your remaining time as VP of operations and finance?</strong>
<strong>C: </strong>There’s some exciting things coming up... This project that I’m working on is a service kitchen. That was something that took a long time to get ready … it’s going to be is a kitchen right above … the Bomber. It’s going to be for students to use, to [have access to] a certified kitchen on campus.
We’re really excited about that and during the off peak times, looking to be able to alleviate the Bomber in some of their busy times I don’t know if you’ve ever been when there’s an info session happening at the same time … just giving the Bomber more time to get ready for … events, like early in the morning when students aren’t going to be there or working with students to book the time to be able to accommodate for everyone and do some catering orders for clubs and things like that, because we’re having to turn some people away.
<strong>Based on the Student-Led Evaluations of Commercial Services project, what were you able to improve?</strong>
<strong>C: </strong>I did start the Commercial Services Advisory Committee at the beginning of my term. Its been really great.... We got input on a lot of things in general we’re doing a rebrand of our coffee at International News to make it more tailored towards our students. It was really fun, we were able to come up with the different names of the coffees. We were able to put in a lot more vegetarian options at the Bomber [and] we redid our menu recently, within the last year. One of the feedbacks we heard from students was there’s not enough vegetarian [and halal] options [at] the Bomber. We did add some vegetarian options, but what I think was the most important which I don’t think we had before was is a little label that says vegetarian option and it’s where you’re able to substitute things for a vegetarian option. We always had butter chicken, but now you can swap the chicken in for paneer. Now a pretty large part of our menu is either vegetarian to start with or [has a] vegetarian option.
<strong>How were you able to differ commercial services on campus from services in this surrounding area?</strong>
<strong>C: </strong>I think something I’m really proud of from our commercial services is our mandate to hire students in any position that couldn’t be filled by not a student. I think that’s something that Feds as an organization, so that’s Campus Bubble, Wasabi, the Bombshelter, International News, Feds Used Books, [and the] Turnkey desk.... We really do put a lot of time into developing our students and we have a lot of student managers and just giving them those opportunities to lead their peers and really to develop a sense of community... Something I started that wasn’t on my platform is creating a new part-time staff survey. It includes questions about their supervisors and their departments and about Feds in general ... [Feds organizations] are priced lower than a lot of things on-campus and off-campus and I think it’s important for students to realize that we’re a not-for-profit, so between all of our commercial services, we don’t make money. It’s not our goal to profit off our students who are already paying a lot in tuition. That’s really important to us philosophically as well we would get in trouble with the government if we were to start budgeting to make millions of dollars. Those sorts of things, so when you spend money at the Bomber, you’re not paying too much beyond what the food costs and labour costs and those sorts of things.
<strong>What would you rate yourself?</strong>
<strong>C: </strong>Eleven out of 10. That’s a good question. It’s a hard question. I think what I find difficult about this role is, I don’t know how other people did before me. The staff that report to [me] might not tell me if I’m doing a really shitty job. I think I have tried my best at really — this job is very difficult not to like you know ... whatever my own horn but, it’s a really difficult job in that it’s more work than I could ever have imagined. And I think in my portfolio, I have all these goal and dreams of things I’d love to do, but the SLC plumbing shut down in our building so i need to like focus my attention on that. I think that what you could never convey to a student is that — or I’d love to be able to, come to me in my office hours — just how much work [happens] on a day-to-day … Am I the best person to be the VP of operations and finance of a $20 million organization, no, zero out of 10 right. But if that’s what this organization wanted we would hire a full-time staff member to do this role.... So to be good at this job, in terms of knowing how to run a bar or a convenience store or create a budget with health and dental plan, no I’m terribly ill-equipped to do all of those things, but ... that’s why you hire good people. And that’s why ... I feel like my job is to be the voice of students at that table. You know, the Bomber got new renovations in. I don’t know what colours you want to paint them, that’s not my area of expertise like I studied biology. But in general, yes I think putting in booths is like something that students would like and I think that, here’s what a student would like and I hope and I feel like I’ve done a good job.… I hope and I think I’ve done a good job and be relatable to other students. I hope they feel free to come to me with any of their concerns, ideas and I think I’ve done a good job in my meetings internally representing what students would want. But I think if anything has gone well this year the credit is all on our staff and putting up with this — not what you asked me at all — but I think that I’ve tried my best and I think I’ve been a voice for students and I think that really having your heart in the right place and showing up on time and being a generally competent individual.
