VP Internal to Reach Out
For both contenders, a stronger tie to the 17,000 arts and science students is essential to their mandate. Contente anticipates reaching out to students themselves during orientation, while LaForest hopes to form strong ties with ASFA’s 27 member associations, who will in turn reach out to their departments.
“I want to take a bottoms-up approach to empower member associations, and give them the tools necessary to get students involved so it can transfer up to the ASFA level,” he said. “I think it’s important to give them more leeway to organize their events. This way, we will have a more accurate understanding of what students want.”
Currently sitting as VP Finance in the Linguistics Student Association, LaForest was also keen in dealing with potential changes in bylaws and budgets due to the Math and Statistics Students Association’s push for accreditation. Interested in finding “improved channels of communication to come to positive solutions” if elected to council, LaForest also said he’d be interested in creating an internship program for arts and science students.
Contente, current VP internal with the School of Community and Public Affairs Student Association, was also keen on working with the MAs to reach out to students.
“It’s not only the executives who have to work together,” she said. “The MAs are a super integral part of how ASFA works as a cohesive whole to improve student life.”
Well-versed in changing bylaws and managing internal affairs for the SCPA, Contente’s platform revolves around making sure students are aware of what their MA can do for them.
Every program in Concordia’s faculty of arts and science elects student representatives to serve on ASFA’s council as MAs. The MAs serve as a student’s most direct link to their faculty’s governing body.
“I think that’s where political apathy generates: when people don’t think they can make a difference,” she said. “As an ASFA exec, I would listen in such a way that I could better serve the bigger population.”
This article originally appeared in Volume 31, Issue 22, published February 8, 2011.
