How has your experience as EUS president prepared you for this position?

EUS president has been interesting because when I first came into it I saw it as a very engineering-centred role. Over the course of the year I’ve been working on lots of projects that don’t just work with our faculty, but we work with administration, we work with 15-20 different units at McGill for different projects. I’ve been able to build really strong, healthy relationships with the administration as a whole. 

And I think the other thing that I’ve gained through that is that I’m not a yes-man or a sympathizer with the administration. I’ve developed a relationship of trust and respect. I can have a really heated argument with, for example, Morton Mendelson over the EUS logo and get really passionate about it and angry, and they do the same thing back and they’re not afraid to be honest with me. Then two days later I can go to a meeting with the same group of people and be super productive.

As SSMU president, how would you address the tension on campus?

One of the most important things is actively informing people of what’s going on. We often treat the listserve as if it were an active means of talking with people, and it’s not. We don’t go out, reach out to people in different ways. Beyond that I don’t have a solution because it’s just been crazy this year.

What do you think about the strategic summits and consultation fairs?

I think they’re really good. I think the strategic summits are more idea-generation. They’re really cool because it gives people an opportunity to just talk about new ideas. I think the consultation fairs are cool because they let us react to things, talk about things, and build on issues and address them. 

The candidates are very diverse. How would you work to get your executive together as a team?

One of the things I’m really proud of with EUS is that we have a diverse crowd of people. We have nights out where we just put everything aside and have a nice supper, go to karaoke, go for drinks in the Village or just have new experiences. We have a really strong exec that thinks together but it has not muted the people’s personal opinions.

What do you think is the most important part of the SSMU president’s portfolio?

At the very core of it, it’s holding the team together. Without a team you can’t fight for accessible education, you can’t provide successful platforms for clubs and services to exist. 

If you could high-five anyone, who would it be?

There’s a company called IDEO that focuses on the concept of user-centred design. I would high-five them because they’ve started a big change in how we think about design.