2023 SU general election: Faculty of Arts representatives
Along with the responsibilities outlined for all Students’ Legislative Council (SLC) members, faculty representatives are accountable for responsibilities particular to their role including: Reporting to students of their faculty the policies, positions and programs of the Students’ Union (SU), reporting to their faculty itself (like Dean’s Council) the policies, positions and programs of the SU, representing student constituents of their faculty at SLC, representing student constituents of their faculty on university committees and reporting to the VP Academic on matters of academic importance within their faculty.
MUNTAHA AAMIR
Muntaha Aamir is a candidate running for one of the Faculty of Arts representative positions. As a former Student-at-Large representative on the Board of Governors, Aamir aims to use this experience to continue advocating for students at a granular level within the Faculty of Arts.
Aamir’s priorities revolve around affordability, student safety and well-being and strengthening Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) advocacy across the faculty.
Affordability is a common concern that Aamir aims to tackle by providing easier access to resources that would help alleviate the financial burden on students. She plans to continue collaborating with the SU on their tuition advocacy and consultations with the university.
Student safety and well-being is another one of Aamir’s priorities. One of her specific points is to provide greater support for students experiencing sexual violence or needing to escape difficult situations by submitting Quality Money proposals to generate funding for resources. She hopes to explore the options that would make it easier for people to leave abusive situations. Overall, Aamir hopes to increase transparency on the support and resources that the university offers when confronted with such situations.
Lastly, Aamir wants to strengthen EDI advocacy across the faculty by introducing in-depth and extensive EDI training for student clubs and eventually across classrooms to be accessed through D2L. She also plans to work towards creating more EDI events across the faculty to further promote important conversations. Her choice of prioritizing EDI is based on student feedback that calls for more inclusion and student connection after a long hiatus away from the campus community.
By running as a Faculty of Arts representative this election, Aamir wants to bring her goals to fruition on a smaller scale that she hopes could eventually translate across the campus community.
SIRAAJ SHAH
Siraaj Shah is another candidate, who is running for re-election for the Faculty of Arts representative position.
From his experience in the previous term, he learned that long-term goals are best realized by focusing on specific initiatives. Hence, his platform is mainly focused on three action items: club and student engagement, Quality Money initiatives and affordability.
Based on his progress from the previous term, Shah wants to continue to strengthen club and student engagement amongst Arts students by advocating for clubs funding to ensure they can operate adequately. Specifically, he wants to provide training for executives from major department clubs across the faculty so they can be better equipped for their own advocacies.
In addition, Shah wants to focus on two Quality Money initiatives which aim to improve study spaces in the faculty and renovate the rooftop of the Arts parkade — an area that he determines to have lots of potential. The former includes modernizing the spaces in the basement of the Social Sciences building to provide quality study spaces for students. He believes that by focusing on these Quality Money initiatives, they will create important spaces that would not only serve arts students but the broader student population in the long run.
Lastly, with his professional knowledge in real estate, Shah is confident in his abilities to generate resources for students to access affordable housing. This would include hosting workshops for housing and developing resources alongside the SU while continuing student advocacy to the administration to ensure that student concerns are being heard.
Shah’s decision to run for re-election stems from his passion for leadership and continuing the meaningful work of ensuring that students have a voice in spaces where important decisions are being made.
All undergraduate students in the Faculty of Arts can vote YES or NO on their ballot for up to two candidates for FACULTY REPRESENTATIVE or ABSTAIN from voting.