Senate Endorsements!

This post is written by guest writer Sean Heisler, who is currently serving his second term on the Board of Governors, and his third on Senate, and is currently the Senate Vice-Chair.

Before I dive into the current candidates I really need to flag one of the candidates who was withdrawn from the race. Devin Syrovatka withdrew, but in his response to me explaining why, he was exceptionally inspiring and genuinely interested in learning (plus he indicated he’s looking to run next year!) So consider this a bit of an endorsement a year in advance!

But, on to the actual candidates and an analysis of them! If you’d like to look over the full responses they’re available here, so you’re welcome to take a browse.

The Highlights

Even candidates with NO previous experience with Senate comment that is an exceptionally slow moving body. SENATE TAKE NOTE, you have a horrible reputation. Let’s speed things up a bit.
Apparently candidates think that me getting elected as Vice-Chair was actually important. While kinda fun, I don’t think I agree at all. I appreciate the flattery though – not that it helped you.

Exams, be it databases or release dates, have become a priority to students everywhere. Excellent, let’s get some movement there!

The Endorsements

Justin Yang. Flat out you’d be a fool to not vote for this incumbent, his knowledge of Senate is immensely strong and he points out issues no other candidates even realized, such as the College for Interdisciplinary Studies discussions that will come forward. Plus he’d be an excellent candidate to be the Chair of the Student Senators and lead them with his experience.

Montana Hunter! Though new to the Senate arena, without ties that I’ve seen to any current representative, he’s had answers that are both well thought out and very relevant. It appears to me that he may have become interested through the Honorary Degree item that went through senate (one of his flagged critical discussions) and additionally took some time to review the Strategic Plan with one of the strongest answers on the Senate front to question 6. He is keen on Broad Based Admission, and better engaging students in Senate (which is exceptionally difficult but a great goal)! His biggest weakness is his lack of formal experience in Senate matters, but shows a great desire and ability to learn to get past this.

Kiran Mahal. Though she’s flagged a poor understanding of Senate as one of her weaknesses, none of the other answers would indicate this at all. She’s obviously well researched, flags mental health and an exam database as two areas to focus on and connects them brilliantly to UBC’s Strategic Plan. She also advocates explicitly and frequently the importance of the Student Caucus (the group of all the Student Senators) and coordination between all the representatives – another extremely important and somewhat missed answer from other candidates.

Now I know that there are a total of 5 votes, but given that Barnabas Caro only replied briefly to three of the questions, and that the other candidates didn’t respond at all, I feel unable to endorse any other candidates.