Justin Williams – President Elect
Hello and welcome to my section of the Team Yellow platform. Throughout this document, I hope you find that the importance of community involvement, campus engagement, accountability, sustainability, and partnership are illuminated. I welcome any suggestions or criticism that you may have. Feel free to contact me to set up a time to discuss anything in the document.
ON ENGAGING STUDENTS WITH THE FEDERATION OF STUDENTS
At our University executive candidates stand up every year to talk about how they are going to fight student apathy. I cannot think of a single set of candidates who have not listed it as one of their major platform issues since I have been on campus. Unfortunately, despite great rhetoric (and action) the percentage of voters remains low and large numbers of students feel unrepresented by their student government. I believe that there are a number of things that can be done immediately to increase the level of interaction between the student union and students at large: we must breakdown cultural and structural barriers to engagement.
Cultural Barriers:
We, as a community, must breakdown negative misconceptions about the Federation and increase the amount of knowledge that students have about what the student union actually does for students. Our current executives have started this process but there is still a great deal of work to be done. It will be the responsibility of the next executive to really expand on the work that they have started.
One of the best ways to clear cultural barriers to involvement with the Federation of Students is to reach out to first year students. By focusing attention on first year students and increasing their opportunities for direct engagement with the student union we will build a culture of involvement, which can be fostered throughout a student’s years at UW.
To increase the interaction between the Federation and first year students, I will reinvigorate and improve on the Residents Life Engagement Project. I will work with our affiliated colleges and universities to expand the program into our these institutions. Expanding on this, I will also ask councillors, board members, and service coordinators to become a part of the program. By inviting these representatives to the residences, I will be able to introduce students to unique opportunities using real examples of engaged students.
In the Fall term our ticket will also implement a first year council to give first year students a voice on campus and ease the transition from being involved in high school to being campus leaders. The first year council proposal, which I have worked on extensively with VP Internal candidate, Steve Hayle, will act as an advisory body to the executives to provide information about issues that they are facing on campus.
Beyond engaging first years, I believe that more needs to be done to highlight the work of student volunteers on our campus. By raising the profiles of student leaders and their involvement on our campus, we will create a culture that rewards hard work that is done for students around campus. This idea means using the FedS website to highlight the work that students are doing inside the Federation and across campus in different clubs and services. Some examples for this type of recognition are volunteers of the month, club of the term, and increased profiles for service coordinators.
Structural Barriers:
As stated above, our team will create a first year council to give students a chance to become involved with FedS the moment they step on campus. Currently, when students enter campus council seats are already filled and it is difficult for students to gain access to council. The first year council will open a brand new avenue for students wishing to be engaged.
Also, as the University expands to include satellite campuses, we must reach out to these campuses and work with them to learn their needs. The distance between Waterloo and Cambridge, for instance, creates governance challenges for any executive team. However, advancements in communication technologies and an executive team that has the energy and care to do so can really work to improve on the virtually nonexistent relationship between main campus and our satellites. In this regards, I have already started to open communications between myself and this terms WASA president, so that I can learn about issues that Architecture students are facing before I even take office.
Some of the best learning opportunities happen outside of the classroom. I think it is important for the Federation of Students to encourage this type of learning. I have been working with both Steve and Andres on determining the best mechanism for helping to advance this personal development. For next year, we will work with the Office of Organization and Human Development at the University to create training course on student leadership. This will be tied into the efforts of both the VP Internal and Education. Through the VP Internal we will create training programs for clubs and services, and through the VP Education we will work on creating lobbying training based on education issues.
Beyond training specific skills, I am dedicated to helping students find mentors and volunteer opportunities across campus and within the community. I plan on creating two resource banks on the FedS website to create linkages between volunteer opportunities and volunteers and between community leaders and interested students (discussed more below).
ON IMPROVING COUNCIL
An effective and responsive student union requires hardworking, well trained student councillors and committee members. Two very easy ways to do this are to increase the training that councillors and committee members receive and to give councillors public outlets to inform constituents of the work they are doing.
Currently, a lot of emphasis is placed on councillors taking personal responsibility for learning their duties, the role that they play on committees and the bylaws, policies and procedures of the union. While I agree with this in spirit, I believe that is gives some councillors, especially long standing councillors, an advantage over less experienced members. This also gives all councillors and advantage over students at large who are attempting to enter council.
As president, I will work with the executive researcher and the executive team to improve on the education that is given to councillors and committees. This training will be expanded to a minimum of once a term, so that new councillors can be involved in it, and will be expanded into committees of council through the chair of each committee.
Also, this executive team will better utilize the executive researcher. A part of what the executive researcher does is help to ensure good, coordinated governance. However, it is up to the executive team to utilize the incredible resource that is available to them. I am committed to working closely with our current executive researcher, Rick Theis, on this issue.
ON INCREASING CONSULTATION OPPORTUNITIES
I will improve the way that the Federation of Students consults with students. I will work with student leaders to create research and advisory working groups on issues that are important to students at-large. These working groups will increase communication between students’ council and students at large and they will give students around campus a chance to become directly involved with the Federation of Students. Two immediate examples of consulting bodies that I will create are a committee on campus websites and a first year council.
The website advisory working group would have two functions. First, the group would advise on the FedS website to increase its utility to students across campus. This would be a great leap from how things currently happen (where the new FedS executives change the website every two years or so). Instead, we would keep the current website and improve its utility for our members. This would save resources and give students on campus what they want out of this medium.
Second, the working group would create recommendations to the Federation for things that students would like to see changed on campus websites, so that we could more effectively lobby the administration for changes to UW’s web services. For instance, this committee could create recommendations for Quest, so that we can tell the administration what students want Quest to look like when it is next revamped.
First Year Council, as mentioned above, will work to advice the executives on issues that face first year students. One issue that I am working on with the VP Education candidate, Andres Fuentes, is to change the English Language Proficiency Exam. The ELPE and the programs associated with it must be reformed into a program that identifies students with specific needs and ensures their success at University. The current situation of having students wait in line for hours after we identify them as requiring additional assistance is unacceptable.
In addition to consultation bodies, I will ensure that more information is sent to campus media outlets. I will personally send out an email to the campus print sources one Friday before every council meeting to inform them of any positions that are going to be filled (for students at large), and I will email a press release out with information from the council package when it is released to councillors. This will give our campus media outlets a better opportunity to inform students about what council is doing.
ON OUR WEBSITE
While I will create a working group to advise on the Feds.ca website, there are a number of things that I will automatically start working towards. First, I will promote the creation of an anti-calendar where students can comment about courses they have taken at the University of Waterloo. This will give students the opportunity to comment, both positively and negatively, about courses that they have taken, which will help other students when choosing course.
Additionally, I will work on creating a section of the website focused on helping students become engaged on campus and within the community. To start, this section will advertise volunteer opportunities that students can take on, peer leadership groups that students can become a part of, and pair mentors – upper year students – with students wanting to become more involved on campus.
A third section of the website that I will work to see completed is a public lecture database. Lectures placed on the internet are increasingly allowing people to experience education opportunities that they could not witness in person. Universities from around the world are starting to harness new communication technologies to improve opportunities for their students. UW, too, should move forward with this trend (for an example see http://www.radioopensource.org/ out of Brown University)
ON MAKING OUR CAMPUS SUSTAINABLE
Since I co-founded Clearing A Path over two years ago, I have witnessed a dramatic increase in the passion that students have for improving the environmental performance of this University. From both my academic and institutional background, I have an intimate knowledge of how community and institutional greening can be done in a manner that lowers costs and increase civic pride. As President, I look forward to delivering the positive message I am hearing from students to the University administration and the Federation itself.
As President, I will continue to lobby the administration to make our campus sustainable. This means carrying on the campaign that Clearing a Path has pushed for the past two years and ensuring that students who have put their time into this process determine where the campaign goes from here. I will also work with students on increasing the number of environmentally and socially responsible products available to them on campus. Additionally, I will work with the entire executive team to limit the resources that we use in our office. One of the ways that I will work on this is to revamp the “Greening FedS” working group that was started by the current executive.
ON BUILDING ON AND UTILIZING OUR PARTNERSHIPS
One of the most important avenues for ensuring the success for our students within the community and the University is to build on the partnerships that already exist and to search out new partnerships.
On Orientation Week
One of the best partnerships that the Federation of Students has with the University is our Orientation Program. Through Orientation Week students begin to become members of our campus and create a support base that will help them succeed. However, it has been ten years since the last overhaul of Orientation Week and a lot has changed (including the age of those we are orienting with the campus).
I will work with current Federation Orientation Committee members, staff from both the University and the FedS and incoming students to review how well Orientation Week reaches its mandate and what can be done to improve the week. Three issues of specific concern for me are the autonomy of FOC, volunteer appreciation, and the involvement of clubs, services and societies in the week.
Warrior Weekends
Warrior Weekends is an incredible program that attracts a large number of first years. This is a perfect place to increase the visibility of the Federation of Students. During this election, candidates will have the opportunity to be involved in a Warrior Weekends’ event in a fun way and interactive manner, which will engage voters. As president, I am dedicated to working with the Warrior Weekends team to utilize this program to inform participants about the work that the Federation does and how they can get involved.
ON OUR PLACE IN THE COMMUNITY
Just as learning should not be seen as an experience exclusive to the classroom, Waterloo students should not be seen as separate from the greater community. We must work to increase our position within the community by forming a greater partnership with the WLUSU executive and the Mayor’s Student Advisory Committee to work on municipal issues and increase opportunities for students within the greater Waterloo community.
ON OUR REFERENDUMS
To start, I would like to say that I am happy to see students so passionate about both of the referendums. I look forward to hearing the arguments from all four committees, and I am confident in the decision that we as a community will make.
While I privately have an opinion on the referendums, I will not be releasing any statements regarding my positions. As an incoming executive, I take my professional and civic responsibility to fulfill the will of the student body very seriously. I also feel that a referendum should be decided based on the merit of the arguments as weighted by all students equally. My opinion should not matter for either of the referendums.
Finally, I would like to say that I look forward to implementing whatever decisions that we, as a community, make on these issues.
holy macarole Justin. specific, thorough and inspired..digging the platform. Very excited to work with you next term.