Emily WilliamsThis article expresses opinions based on the Campus Saint-Jean Forum of the Students’ Union 2022 Election on March 2, 2022.
Julia Villoso is no stranger to student politics. She is a current arts councillor, and ran last year for the same role but lost to her opponent — Emily Kimani, current vice-president (operations and finance). Kimani is now vying for the presidential position, and Villoso is the sole person trying for the spot of vice-president (operations and finance) (VP Ops Fi) this year — and it’s clear she is using this experience to her advantage.
Her contribution to the Campus Saint-Jean (CSJ) forum heavily relied on mention of the divide between North Campus and its francophone counterpart, CSJ. She highlighted how CSJ students pay for UASU services and therefore deserve equal access to them. Specifically, she mentioned improving the access of CSJ students to the resources available via UASU Cares, an online “interactive wellness directory” dedicated to helping students ranging from mental health support to counselling and sexual violences services.
By focusing so heavily on the relationship between the two campuses, she demonstrated what I perceived to be a dramatic improvement to her platform from last year, where it was raised that in her platform, there was a “gaping hole where Augustana and CSJ should be.”
I find it promising that she talked directly to CSJ, instead of talking in a way where her points could have come off as an afterthought towards the campus. It shows how she is actively trying to improve on the promises of her initial VP Ops Fi campaign, leading to positive initial impressions.
Along with this, she improved on her platform from last year by directly mentioning the CSJ in it. For example, when promising to provide more resources and services to student groups for green projects, she highlights the work of Campus Vert in tandem with sustainability on campus, one of the main pushes of her platform.
Her platform promises lined up in her words and she actively referenced francophone students, showing direct improvement over last year’s campaign. By including this change it shows a better understanding of the student bodies she is meant to help represent.
In addition to Villoso’s promises about improving francophone student inclusivity with UASU Cares, at the CSJ forum she also committed to hiring more French-speaking workers at Students’ Union businesses. These combined led me to appreciate the clear improvements made in this year’s campaign over last year. When voting for someone in Students’ Union elections, you want to know your vote is going to count for something. You don’t want to notice a discrepancy between the promises made verbally and those on the platform in writing, so you cannot help but breathe a sigh of relief when you see these two things line up.
Her platform is by no means perfect, and the part of her platform regarding UASU Cares and CSJ is honestly a little sparse, but compared to last year’s platform it is a major improvement.
This is something to watch for in Villoso’s campaign in the coming days. Major discrepancies in a platform and verbal forum is certainly something to avoid — this can turn the tide of an election. All in all, I liked what she said at CSJ in regards to francophone students — it showed improvement in her campaign this year and, thus, her ability as a candidate.
