The Race for VP Academic
Often seen as the source of all things Frosh, a more important part of the ASFA mandate actually concerns scholastic initiatives. Vying for the position of VP Academic and Loyola, Diana Sitoianu and Christina Gentile are two candidates with big ideas.
“It’s so important for students to balance out academics with networking and socializing,” said Sitoianu. “School is about growing as a person before you can actually go out there and impress future employers. ASFA is a great organization for doing that—it really puts students in the middle of a lot of opportunities.”
If elected, Sitoianu said her social skills and political background as a former student-at-large on the Concordia Student Union events committee and director of the past winter orientation would help her fulfill the VP mandate.
“My human resource skills would allow me to branch out to students and get them in the loop, get them involved,” said Sitoianu. “My campaign is based on that.”
When asked about her platform, Christina Gentile had prepared two lists of ideas for the coming year. The Psychology honors student, who “spends 24/7 on the Loyola campus,” broke things down for what she’d like to do academically and for the “other” campus.
“We need more networking opportunities, informal cocktails, wine and cheeses, things where we invite professionals in the field to meet people,” she said, before detailing her ideas of implementing a studying abroad career fair and an academic “did you know” campaign for first year students.
But the real passion in Gentile’s campaign was evident when speaking of things she’d like to do for Loyola. Specifically, Gentile hopes to get a shuttle bus that will run from the Vendome Metro to campus at peak hours, a Loyola-based ASFA office and more events—like career placement services and CV workshops—run from the NDG campus.
“When you’re at Loyola, participating in student life is more difficult because of that travel time to get downtown,” she said. “We’re always talking about student space, but at Loyola there’s an abundance of it. I want to be realistic in saying that there are more students who study downtown, but whatever opportunities are [at the SGW campus] should also be available at Loyola. Students who study here shouldn’t be disadvantaged in any way.”
