The CSU elections : QPIRG CONCORDIA Endorses RiZe
The CSU elections have started today and we would like to share with you our thoughts on the current slates.
QPIRG CONCORDIA believes that RiZe’s team is the best to fill the Executive seats.
RiZe’s platform is the most aligned with our core values and principles and we believe that they have the ideas that will work in the best interest of Concordia’s undergraduate students.
Although we support all of RiZe’s principles, here are a few we would like to put emphasis on:
In terms of community:
We believe that universities are often a space where many students will have to experience sexual violence in various ways. A violence that creates isolation for which the survivor struggles to find any support. This is a continuous problem that has to be worked on and we support RiZe’s approach to create more awareness and platforms where students can discuss this matter without fear of judgment.
Expanding Mental Health Services is also on RiZe’s mandate. Developing skills of self care, knowing to look for help, accessing therapy are lifelong assets that are key for going through academia.
Accessibility is one of our principles at QPIRG. It means deconstructing the norms and sharing resource access. This is a constant battle that we can’t afford to slow down. For example, using meeting spaces that are wheelchair-accessible and making it the norm shows that we do consider that every individual has their specific needs that are valid and should be respected. We consider offering food, translation, childcare, sign language classes part of working towards accessibility and we constantly need to improve our approaches.
Intersectional Sustainability is an amazing principle on RiZe’s campaign. This means putting in practice what decolonization stands for. Real inclusivity means sharing power and resources and deconstructing power dynamics that are created by various forms of oppression like racism, transphobia, islamophobia, sexism, ableism, classism and homophobia to name a few.
Being a fee-levy allows us to build community beyond the CSU. This is important for us because Concordia University also has the incredible power to influence social movements across the city. By funding fee-levy groups, students not only provide services and jobs for themselves but also for the overall Montreal community, services that most marginalized people struggle to obtain elsewhere.
In terms of student campus life:
RiZe proposes wonderful ideas such as student jobs and paid internships which we feel are important for avoiding financial precarity for students that would not have to work two jobs (including the unpaid internship) to sustain themselves during university. We also support the remaining points of RiZe but this summarizes our thoughts on the group’s mandate.
Here is the make up the team and the names to vote for:
(All are RiZe candidates)
- Margot Berner – for General Coordinator
- Harvin Hilaire – for Academic and Advocacy Coordinator
- Elliott Boulanger – for External Affairs and Mobilization Coordinator
- Ashley Torres – Finance Coordinator
- Sophie Beauchamp-Lizotte – for Internal Affairs Coordinator
- Manuela Simo – for Loyola Coordinator
- Apochele Kamwendo – for Sustainability Coordinator
- Paige Keleher – for Student Life Coordinator
CSU Council:
Although CSU Executives make the agenda, the CSU Council is the voting body of the Student union. After reading their introductions, here are the candidates we encourage you to elect:
- Ahmadou Sakho
- Christiane Sakr
- Elizabeth Tasong
- Esther Morand
- Hannah Jamet-Lange
- Lindsay Surerus
- Nicholas Hamel
- Roy Singer-Shay
- Sarra Zargayoun