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