Stephen Rogers
For Huron's Vice President University Affairs
Platform
Overview
The responsibility of the Vice President University Affairs is to act as a representative of Huron’s student body to Huron’s administration and advocate for their concerns. To do this job properly and effectively, the VP UA and Huron University College Student's Council (HUCSC) must do a better job of investigating what those student body concerns are.
My platform is focused on reforming the VP UA’s, and the Huron Student’s Council’s approach to both reaching out to students and advocating for their wants and concerns.
I think it is time Huron’s Student’s Council does a better job of asking what students want, instead of offering services/programming without prior outreach and then working to convince students of the value of these services or programming. Once we establish concerns and wants for the Huron student body we need to make sure we properly advocate and provide services/programming to address those wants.
My platform is divided into focusing on the two tiers of the VP UA portfolio as I envision it: Improving our student outreach, and improving how we advocate.
Student Outreach
Regular Residence Visits
If elected, myself and my team will undergo regular residence sweeps in order to gather input and feedback on events at Huron, future plans, and any concerns/ideas they may have for the HUCSC or Huron. There’s no reason why we shouldn’t regularly go ask first-year students, who live at our school, what they want from their student’s council and what they want us to advocate for to administration.
Real time Access to Student Input
I will work to use the technology at our disposal to get regular feedback from Huron’s student body. This includes utilizing email lists to issue incentivized surveys, encouraging the use of the My Huron Mobile App for student’s to give feedback, exploring the possibility of a survey capability on the My Huron App, and using the TV’s throughout the school in conjunction with social media to ask students questions they want to be asked, and we want answered.
Revamp Commissioner Positions
If elected, I will restructure the commissioner positions so that they are focused on reaching out to students, gathering input, and processing that input to allow for more effective advocating. This means there will be commissioners soley responsible for reaching out to students in various capacaities to get their input on whatever topic or issue that is at hand. I would create the role of an Associate Vice President Student Interest (AVPSI), which I would advocate to be a paid position. This AVPSI would help to coordinate other commissioners in going out to students and getting their feedback. As well, they would efficiently help to process data and information gathered through student outreach to provide more effective advocacy when myself and other HUCSC members advocate to administration.
Advocating
Restructuring the VP University Affairs Portfolio
I want to reform the VP University Affairs’ portfolio and their current responsibilities. Instead of the VP UA being in charge of student programming like the “Shake the World Conference” or “Dam the Stress Week”, I will transfer over these select student events in the UA portfolio over to the VP Student Life portfolio (if they choose to keep them). Instead I will ensure the VP UA portfolio is dedicated to focusing wholly on advocating for students by gathering student input, processing this input, realizing student interests, and promoting these interests effectively through the proper channels.
Better Coordination with Department Representatives
As VP UA I will work more closely with the HUCSC department representatives to more effectively advocate for student issues on Academic Council and Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) meetings. These are stages to advocate for student concerns in partnership with university stakeholders that have been underutilized in the past because the HUCSC has lacked a coordinated approach.
Personal Advocacy Points
I vow that I will advocate for each and every student body interest and concern that is brought to my attention or gathered to be a concern by the HUCSC and my team. However, there are some issues and concerns at Huron that I believe to be pressing currently, and that I will advocate for with the approval of the HUCSC and the wider student body:
Continued promotion of a Fitness Facility at Huron
I will continue to advocate for Huron’s administration and the HUCSC to support the creation of a fitness facility at Huron. Kings, Brescia, and all of Western’s residences have fitness facilities, and it is time Huron caught up to promote the health and wellness of our student body.
Better Classroom Technology
We need to bring Huron’s technology up to par with the rest of Western University. It is time our school’s classrooms reflected the realities of classroom learning in the 21st century, and reflected the classrooms of many Ontario high schools.
Expanded Experiential Learning Opportunities
I want to advocate for more experiential learning courses at Huron so students can have the option of gaining some practical experience outside a traditional classroom environment. This practical experience is highly transferrable to the workplace after graduation and helps to diversify a student’s university experience and education.
Emphasis on Fostering Alumni connections to assist with Employment Opportunities after Graduation
Huron has a great number of incredible alumni across the country and the world. I want to advocate to administration to partner with the HUCSC in exploring how to connect students with these successful alumni in whatever field or occupation those students are interested in.
Implementing Pass/Fail Elective Course Options
If elected I will strongly advocate to Academic Council to implement pass/fail elective options for Huron students. This is a ongoing trend at university across North America and something that will help differentiate Huron while also providing a more enriching university experience to students who may take courses they otherwise would not.