SMH vs. WRL

Two teams vie for AMS executive

The two teams were announced last night at AMS Assembly.
Image by: Sam Koebrich
The two teams were announced last night at AMS Assembly.

Two teams were ratified for the 2014 AMS Executive election ballot, but a third team was left out after they failed to meet nomination requirements, according to the AMS Elections Team.

Team SMH was ratified, and is comprised of Scott Mason, Mark Asfar, and Hasina Daya. They are running for President and Vice-President (Operations and University Affairs), respectively.

Allison Williams, Justin Reekie, and Philip Lloyd make up Team WRL. Williams is running for President, Reekie for VP (Operations) and Lloyd for VP (University Affairs).

Williams is currently the AMS Academic Affairs Commissioner, Reekie is currently Hospitality and Safety Services Director and Lloyd is currently on the Student Faculty Relations Committee.

Daya is currently President and CEO of the Residence Society., Asfar is the AMS Student Life Administration Manager and Mason is currently ASUS President.

Three candidates were ratified for the Rector ballot: Aman Partap, Mike Young, and Marcus Threndyle.

The team of Kanivanan Chinniah, Peter Pakalnis and John Patrick Stanley dropped out of the executive race, after it became known that one of team members wasn’t an AMS member. According to AMS policy, executive candidates must be a member of the society in order to run, Mark Godin, deputy speaker and chief electoral officer, said.

“I made a ruling in consultation with the Elections Team that the team in question had therefore not completed [the] nomination process, and thus were not permitted to continue the election,” he said.

The AMS Elections team is comprised of the Chief Electoral Officer, the Chief Returning Officer and Deputy Returning Officers.

To be allowed on the ballot, Teams must garner a minimum of 750 signatures from students, and complete all the components of the nomination package, including writing a description of the team as well as submitting a bond.

Kanivanan Chinniah told the Journal following Assembly Thursday night that the team decided not to run after meeting with team WRL, consisting of Williams, Reekie and Lloyd. “After talking to team WRL, we realized we shared common values and they are also running for the right reasons,” he said. The teams were approved by the Elections Team, presented to Assembly last night, and were omnibused so both could be ratified at the same time.

Both SMH and WRL were ratified successfully, and will appear on the AMS Executive ballot.

Mason of SMH said that the team was focused on making an impact.

“We want to be remembered as a team that brought students together as opposed to dividing them,” he said.

“It’s the executive’s job to look out for the broader community, assess what’s going on and being a leader.” Daya emphasized to Assembly that small actions cause change.

“It all comes down to the day to day interactions that will make a large impact on student experience,” she said. Asfar added that he would bring a “new perspective” as vice-president (operations).

“I want to test ideas, and see what the merit is,” he said.

“I believe in trusting what works, and not change things just for the sake of changing things.” Mason added that they wish to reach out to faculty societies so everyone can understand what their needs are.

Williams spoke for team WRL stating that they want to focus on creating a broader learning environment at the University.

She said that each member of the team brought a different perspective to the AMS thus far.

Lloyd said the team wants to focus on engaging all members of the Queen’s community.

“Building relationships with students across all disciplines, that’s a culture that I want to create, one of collaboration and engaging with one another,” he said.

Student feedback remains very important, Reekie added.

“It’s continuously seeking student feedback, even from students who aren’t using student services, and to ask why,” he said.

Tags

AMS, Elections

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