So… for some reason, I thought it would be a good idea if I ran for a vice president position at my university.
hahaha, I actually think there’s a lot I can do, without having to change much.

The vision of my platform stems from two concepts, community and academics.
I do not believe the King’s community is as communal as we think it is. Student involvement outside of the classroom setting is very low, and it’s something that I think needs to be addressed.
From what I have noticed within my 4 years here, is that issues are shoved down people’s throats. While I am sympathetic to these causes, the multiplicity harboured within my university setting seems to be drowned out. That being said, I also think that the community aspect within the college is severely lacking. Students don’t know what services are right in front of them, and unfortunately the administration is not helping. You would think these professionals would know the in’s and out’s of the college right now. 

So, here are some of my ideas which I would like to implement next year.

1. Organic tutoring service
this is something I think can be really achieved, for students in 1st and 2nd year doing poorly on exams or midterms should have an opportunity to learn from their mistakes. It is often the case that these students also don’t want to go to their professor because they feel embarassed or stupid. Most 1st and 2nd year profs also have teachers assistants. These individuals would be the one’s encouraging said students to go to this facility, which I think would be a huge success.
for example, teachers could encourage students to go, and if they do, 5% bonus or something.
The way in which I want the program to work, is to invest students money into this program, we pay student fees for my budget, so to create this program requires hiring students, etc, etc. I want to committ $5000 to the startup of this program, and lobby the King’s administration to match (so possible $10,000 being absorbed into this tutoring program.
Hire students in specific faculties, in which these students are on call tutors for all first and second year courses. This is something that just needs to be created, and to use a already working example, we have “the write place” a place where students come to get essay help. But what about exams, essay structure, not just grammer. First year students are generally the one’s who have early midterms, and those first exams are crutial to their apathy within the university setting. They should be able to get help, and boost their grades gradually.
One of the critiques within this idea is that we cannot force these students to seek help… and I agree. However, if students knew this was free, they would be more inclined to go. It’s about encouragement within this setting, we’re not that old… we think we are. People underestimate first year, but it’s not the most difficult thing in the world. It take’s a lot of work to do well in University, and a lot of self discipline.

 2. Student-Faculty town hall meetings
This would be set up through several channels. I plan on having these in early January for every department. The way I see it, students invest $24,000 for a 4 year program, and technically don’t have a say in regards to course, teacher, or program development. Within the politics of the University, there are academic meetings with professors, but the student aspect is lacking, for 2 reasons:
1.  students cannot go to these professor meetings
2.  The students that go (the representatives) are never invited by the professors, and lack the knowledge of when these meetings are.
So, something I think is really easy, managable, and maintains our aspect of community is to hold this “town hall” meeting. They’re very easy to organize, the college representative would now have this under their rights and responsibilities. Meetings conducting in 3 possible locations within the month of march with 22 programs is not a problem in terms of space. These events can also be scapegoated as “wine and cheese” events, again, another way of creating interest into the students coming out. Professors would be forced to get involved, and much will be on their own free will. Students will come together with the faculty to discuss the direction of the program, perhaps different classes can be circulated quicker than others, etc, etc.

3. Student Bus Shelters:
on our campus, we use the Western shuttle service, buses that circulate our area of Western and bring us to other campuses. That being said, there’s no shelter… the bus stop runs about 30 feet (it can fit 3 buses) and yet there’s nothing to cover students against the elements.
The problem is that the road is owned by the city, and there must be a permit. Living in my hometown for so long, I know a thing or two of our muncipal government (I’m also a poli sci student). In addition to my vocal interest in this subject, this is also echoed by all vice president and presidential candidates, so this will be a group effort.

4. Parking
At king’s it costs $5 to park. If you leave and decide to come back, another $5. We’re the only campus at UWO that has this policy. Let’s try to work for all day parking.
In addition, we have free parking… but the hour system is ridiculous. on the one street, it’s an hour, and the other street it’s two hours. I did some research, the spots that are two hours free were originally one hour spots. I would like, again, to lobby the city to get these changed, and my argument is kickass.
HEY METER MAIDS
Y U RIP US OFF!?
the city can change this, this is a bylaw… clearly the city should understand that students are broke, and our classes are generally 3 hours in length. So we’re already falling into a trap, how is it fair for that student to constantly park and get dicked? I realize there are counter-arguments, but they’re fleeting because the student is broke. Why doesn’t the city understand this? We’re going into debt to go to school, I don’t have extra money to pay for bullshit parking tickets. Let students park in the school for less money, and raise the times so that students can go to an 3 hour lecture and be out 30 more dollars.

5. Internal re-structuring within council:
There’s a lot that needs to be re-thought, especially within council. The biggest point I am trying to advocate for is bsecause council does not like to be transparent to the fullest degree. Since this part is a conflict of interest, because I’m bashing student council, I’m going to keep it brief to what I want to do, not why.
1. Maintain the legitimacy of student representatives
2. combine the representatives budget, and the club budget.
3. clubs budgets will be overseen by myself and vp finance.
4. re-structure of representatives responsibilities.
5. Create more advocacy.

These are my big 5 points that I wish to stress are the important student issues. There are other things within this portfolio that I must attain to.
e of the roles within the vp student issues portfolio is to have so many “awareness” weeks. One of these that I wish to do, instead of certain other one’s, is “how to be a student week” which would be a week close to after O-week has ended (O-week stands for orientation week, the first week of school for 1st years)
so, the other 4 awareness weeks I would want to focus on is mental health and disabilitiy awareness, multicultural awareness, environmental awareness, and sexuality awareness. These are the top issues within student social environment. These are the most important, that doesn’t mean the others shouldn’t be done, but every vp has their own ideas. Yes, these are important, however what has been addressed before I argue is more important, and should also be represented better.

I’m suppose to have a speaker, and my idea is Peter Singer, or Slavoj Zizek, two really awesome philosophers.
That’s basically it.

I’ve talked to a lot of people about these ideas, they’re well recieved. These ideas I’ve wrote down have been revised like 15 times. A lot of people crutinized a few points, so I made them more detailed, my arguments and ways of describing my vision became more apparent. I have a pretty good change of winning, campaigning isn’t for another month or so. I have video and photo prep already discussed, we just have to film and photo, I have been playing my political game, it seems to be working to be talking to the right people. I have some good competition, but I think they might just split the votes for me, especially the popular vote.

I have a meeting tomorrow morning, if I get this girl to endorse me, I’m a shoo’in. She’s literally the most beautiful girl at king’s, by far.

J.Sulls.