By: Drew MacEachern and Via Reyes
The SU Election Season will soon be over (on Wednesday technically), and in order to help you vote, we’ve done interviews with several different sets of candidates. Hopefully you can learn many useful things that can help you decide your vote; I’ve learned that “student engagement†is the University equivalent of “the middle class†in being student’s go-to buzzword! Be on the lookout for them! First up is our two Arts Representative candidates Megan Rix and Sam Ferguson. See if you can guess the question that caught them off guard. We will also have the Senate Rep candidates going up later today.
Megan Rix
Image courtesy of UPEISU
In your opinion, what is the primary duty of an Arts representative?
Megan Rix: I feel like the most important thing for an Arts rep is to care about arts students and to understand what they want.
Sam Ferguson: The primary duty of an Arts rep is to represent Arts students inside the Student Union and to advocate their views and their ideas to benefit the student body as a whole.
What is the most important issue facing the Arts faculty today?
Megan Rix: I think the most alarming issue is that we’re such a small faculty and I just feel like when it comes to the University, we’re the ones that come last because we’re so small and I feel like we get under-appreciated a lot.
Sam Ferguson: Looming enrolment. It has been decreasing by like, 13%, I believe. It was over the last year and it’s very good that we keep student engagement up and that will go along with keeping enrolment up with more people seeing Arts as a viable alternative to Sciences and other fields.
Sam Ferguson
Image courtesy of UPEISU
Why are you qualified to be the Arts representative? What unique perspectives and abilities do you bring to your position?
Megan Rix: I think two of the most important things are that I am really approachable and anybody can come to me about anything and I’d have open ears to it, I’d have an open heart, and I would never judge anyone for any problems that they had about the Arts faculty. And also I feel like I am caring. And I feel like I’m the kind of person who understands everything, and I try my best to put myself in people’s situations, and I will do everything that I can to help because I will not be able to stop thinking about it if I am not doing everything I can to help.
Sam Ferguson: From past experiences with not only committees at UPEI but also committees with council at high school level, I feel like I am very qualified and have experience enough over the last five to six years of engagement of the student bodies as a whole to be able to take on this role to be able to represent the Arts students to the best of my ability. Also, different roles with engagement and administration with student and government might come in handy too.
Councillors vote on many issues outside of their jurisdiction. What is the most important non-Arts-related issue facing the University right now?
Megan Rix: I feel like the most important issue is the distribution of money between the campus and I feel like the Arts faculty isn’t getting enough.
Sam Ferguson: The fence is down! [laughs] Expansion of our university as a whole and student engagement. That’s one thing I stress about the most throughout my campaign, student engagement and involvement in different things around campus and that’s one thing I feel like I am the embodiment of. My goal as an Arts rep when I’m not dealing with Arts issues would definitely be to get more people involved and interested on different things on campus.