Why to Vote Community Matters

LettersNadia Hausfather — Published March 24, 2014

Community matters.

But what does that mean? An executive team that acknowledges academics can not be disconnected from university and government policies, these being inextricably related to having sufficient desks in a classroom, not having to work more than study, and eating healthy affordable food, all of which is in turn connected to your academic experience.

This team understands that, and has the capacity to work for students’ interests at all levels. Speaking of levels, the VP Academic and Advocacy candidate recently initiated the first Concordia Student Congress directly connecting the CSU to your student departmental associations so that you can have a voice at many levels of student democracy.

As former VP External of the GSA, I have worked with almost every person on this team and I know they will guide the CSU to make this campus a community of communities in which democracy is not just a gift to those elected, but something all students can participate in through clear democratic mechanisms (including a VP Finance who vows to make budget stuff fun—you can’t pass up the possibility of seeing this happen).

It means a team of students whose experience stands out (a bilingual VP External and Mobilization candidate whose health campaign got students jogging at 8:00am and represented his department many times at the provincial level; a VP Academic and Advocacy candidate who knows how to defend students from his work with CSU Advocacy Centre; a VP Loyola candidate who has volunteered on both campuses for years; a VP Sustainability candidate who attended provincial student meetings in her free time; a Presidential candidate who already made substantial gains for our food systems as CSU VP Sustainability) and who have proven with their past actions their commitment to students’ academic fulfillment, future, and rights.

Don’t give up the opportunity to have them live up to their potential, and most importantly that of our students and community. Vote Community Matters.