Feature: Meet the SU

They’re the official body that represents all undergraduate students. They operate (and own) SUB, as well as the businesses within it, have a $10 million budget to work with and a hefty staff of 200 people. They have a lot of responsibility. So who’s in charge of what the SU does on a daily basis? Meet your elected SU executive friends that keep the SU moving and grooving.

President: Navneet Khinda

Q: What’s your academic life like?

I graduated with a BA in Political Science so I’m just taking a couple courses right now.

Q: What has your experience in student government been like prior to this year?

My experience has been amazing. I was on council for two years as an arts councillor. Last year I was VP External and outside of all that I have just done student leadership roles.

Q: What’s your job description?

As president, I am the primary spokesperson for 30,000 undergraduate students. But unlike the VP’s who focus on one portfolio, I need to have situational awareness of what is going on in the SU, operationally, advocacy-wise. That means I have to understand what each VP’s goals are and to find ways that they can work together. But to make it more concise: The President is in charge of overseeing both the operations of the SU and advocacy efforts.

Q: What’s the best part of your job?

Being able to do so many different things in one job. I can be a lobbyist, I get to read awesome things and meet awesome people. I get to manage as well. So HR stuff and policy stuff.

Q: The worst?

I guess the long hours. And time-management is something I need to work on too.

Q: What are your main goals for the year?

My goals are to coordinate with the VP’s and support them. Kind of like the team captain. I make sure everyone is on the same page. A lot of my time is spent relationship building and realtionship maintaining. We have a new president, a new provost, a new government, and a new board chair coming up, so we need to make sure our messages are in sync. VP External will talk to governement, VP Academic will talk to the admin, and it’s my job to make sure the messages are the same.

My personal goals come from ensuring students can access leadership opportunities, making sure the SU is running smoothly and effectively and that we’re serving students well. Most of it is high in the sky ideas, and the rest of the nitty gritty stuff comes down to the day to day.

Something that is taking up a lot of my time is looking at when a student group can’t function anymore or is supended. Working with the SU to make sure students arent left unrepresented. And meeting with all the players in the university area.

Q: What’s your favourite thing to do on a rainy day?

I like to binge-watch Netflix shows or read a book. Rainy days are good for introspection.

VP Ops-Fi: Cody Bondarchuk

Q: What’s your academic life like?

I’m just starting my fifth year of a Bachelor of Arts with a sociology major. Fifth, but not last.

Q:  What has your experience in student government been like prior to this year?

I’ve always been interested in governance and the model of being able to select your own representatives. I came from a high school with no student government at all so it was an exciting idea that instead of people hired being at the top it was people that we actually wanted. So I voted since my first year, but I had no governance experience before this.

Q: What’s your job description?

Like the name would suggest, it’s largely the operations and the financial part to the student’s union. So it’s very internal. It’s working with operations, anything from buildings to staff and then financially from a budgeting perspective for each of the departments. Really working with the businesses and services we offer.

Q: What’s the best part of your job?

Being able to run with things. I’ve had SU experience before working for SafeWalk, and a lot of the time you have your goals that are related to your service and the goals are set each year. Now, if I have an idea I can actually go try to do it which is really exciting.

Q: The worst?

Scheduling in terms of my dog. She needs to be walked in the afternoon and it’s very common for me to have things planned for early morning and late at night. So I have to go home almost every day to walk her and come back. The commute is more stressful than I thought it would be but I’m working on it.

Q: What are your main goals for the year?

The biggest thing is about accessible food for students. It’s specifically based around healthier food and prepared meals to go as well as groceries. There’s not a lot around campus in terms of a grocery store, so having some semblance of that in SUB is what we’re going for. I want to get those groceries, and then provide healthier and more of a variety of options at L’Express.

Aside from food, there’s the idea of safe spaces and accessible washroom spaces. I want to look at how the University uses gendered spaces and where they are appropriate or not, and where there is an opportunity for ungendered spaces. The biggest being single-unit all-gender washroom stalls.  I’m working with the university architect to make more inclusive signage, and working to create an all-gender changeroom in Van Vliet. I’m also hopefully working with the Government of Alberta to change their building codes so single unit washrooms are required in all buildings.

Q: If you could have any food available on campus what would you want?

I want a salad bar. I want a legitimate, long salad bar where you can make your own salads.

VP Student Life: Vivian Kwan

Q: What’s your academic life like?

I just finished my Bachelor of Science in June with a major in biological science and a minor in psychology. Now I’m in Open Studies, I was enrolled in a wrestling class, but dropped it because, commitment issues. Now I’m in a Health Ed course, just going with the flow.

Q: What has your experience in student government been like prior to this year?

I was on Student Council last year, so I have one full year of experience with student governance. Before that I was more involved with the university side, so I sat on a lot of committees with the university on the health services and stuff like that so more of an advisory, student at large.

Q: What’s your job description?

I focus on more of the non-academic issues. Any advocacy related to residence services, international students. I also work with a bunch of services, anything big to small dealing with the student experience.

Q: What’s the best part of your job?

Everyday is exciting. The schedule is packed for the week, so there’s no chance to be bored, it’s not routine.

Q: The worst?

Processes are a little slow, I can get impatient and a lot of the projects are more long term so I get anxious

Q: What are your main goals for the year?

Most of my goals tie back to student well being. I want to focus on residence issues. I want to open up the housing policy and see what we can add to it. So we’re in the progress of talking to other residence hall association execs to see what the major concerns are.

Also, working with international students to do a mental health campaign. I’m hoping to talk to international students about their mental health struggles in their language. And we’ll feature it in English as well, get the message out that we’re all in the same, we all have struggles and it’s okay to talk about it.

Q: If you could only bring one thing to a desert island, what would it be?

Water just came to mind, so water.

VP Academic: Fahim Rahman

Q: What’s your academic life like?

I’m in my fifth year of a specialization in chemistry, so at the end of this year I’ll be ready to convocate.

Q:  What has your experience in student government been like prior to this year?

I got really lucky. When i was visiting clubs fair I was rushed by Pike (the fraternity). I didn’t pledge or initiate, but I still got an interview with then VP Academic Petros Kusmu and became interested in what goes on in the VP Academic portfolio. In my second year I got involved with the Academic Relations group, proxying for the VP Academic on sub-committees. The following year I ran for VP Academic of the Interdepartmental Science Student’s Society, then was President the following year. So that’s how I got experienced representing students on broad issues across campus and specific issues within the Faculty of Science.

Q: What’s your job description?

VP Academic focuses on anything within the classroom for students. So anything from quality of instruction to class size to how much you pay for your textbooks. That’s the core of the portfolio. I’m really involved in university governance. I sit on a lot of different meetings. I’ll [pick up on different issues like changes to the university calendar as well as program changes in specific programs and faculties as well if they’re going to affect a lot of students.

Q: What’s the best part of your job?

What I’m doing can directly benefit students. Quality instruction, how much we pay for textbooks, what I’m doing is making a difference in the lives of students.

Q: The worst?

Between all the meetings and commitments, it’s hard to find time to read reports or write reports about what’s going on or what undergraduates really like to see. Not having enough time is probably the least desirable part of the job.

Q: What are your main goals for the year?

Quality instruction, so making sure students have the highest quality instruction possible. Affordability is another big thing. So looking at making sure instructors have academic material that is affordable for students. Finally, supporting other student representatives, specifically the faculty associations. We represent 30,000 students on campus, we know that it’s better if some initiatives are better if they come from within the faculty so we want strong faculty associations.

Q: What’s your favourite thing to have for breakfast?

Lately I’ve been enjoying Corn Pops cereal. It’s really simple, but it takes a while to get through a whole bowl.

VP External: Dylan Hanwell

Q: What’s your academic life like?

I’m in my fifth year of Political Science.

Q: What has your experience in student government been like prior to this year?

In my first year I ran for Student’s Council as and Arts Councilor. I lost that election and was a Councillor in waiting. In August someone dropped it, so I became a Councillor. I spent essentially two years on council, spent a couple years on a faculty association and now I’m here.

Q: What’s your job description?

The best way to describe my position is that I deal with everything external to the purvue of the university. So anything outside the control of the university or the Student’s Union that relates to student issues I deal with. That includes getting students to vote in the federal election, to tuition regulations, to student financial aid.

Q: What’s the best part of your job?

I think it’s the ability to see how the Student’s Union can influence a huge system that affects our own students. So I can be a  part of the post-secondary system with it’s hundreds of thousands of students and move that system for the students of the U of A

Q: The worst?

Sometimes I miss the student life. I miss going to class sometimes, but I do like school and I do like learning. I miss doing my degree. That’s the toughest part, as nerdy as it sounds.

Q: What are your goals for the year?

I ran on three goals in my campaign. One was renewal of tuition cap. With the new change in government that came through right away which is super exciting. The next thing was the Get Out The Vote campaign. I’ve set a goal of 7500 students pledging to sign up. The final goal is to talk about the student experience. It’s this nebulous topic that everyone likes talking about. I want to delve into it more and make sure our university is being held to the high standard that we expect when coming here.

Q: What’s your favourite dog breed?

I’d want like a midsize dog, that doesn’t shed, relatively low energy so it’s not jumping all over the place. Right now I think french bulldogs are like the cutest dog you can ever see. But those are the criteria i’m looking for in a dog, but i’m not sure what breed that would be.