AMS CANDIDATES
ACH
Individually, Holly Archer, Jason Collins and Jeffrey Howard have already been making a difference in the AMS. As current managers at three of the most highly used AMS services (P&CC, TAPS and Destinations), we have gained the practical experience necessary for the job and the work ethic to Get It Done. As Team ACH, we plan to use our years of experience serving students to push for real change within the student government. We have structured our platform around what we call our “three pillars”, which we believe to encom the issues that are most important to Queen’s students -ability, Community and Health. Our focus on ability will involve running a fully transparent student government, focusing on fiscal responsibility. Furthermore, the Queen’s Centre project, which is currently behind schedule and over budget, receives a $1 million annual contribution from the AMS. We plan to hold the University fully able for this project, withholding student money if services and resources are not maintained. Our Community pillar will address a variety of issues, beginning with strengthening and improving our ties to the City of Kingston; a relationship which is currently hostile and antagonistic. Also, we plan to drastically increase funding for AMS Clubs, which currently involve over 11,000 students and receive only $4000 annually.
Health, our third pillar, also makes up an important part of our platform. We plan to make it easier for students to enjoy a healthy body, a healthy mind and a healthy campus. Ideas include a 24 hour gym and library, an improved Peer Center, as well as partnering with professors to develop sustainable projects on campus.
Our slogan, “Getting It Done”, perfectly describes our attitude towards the campaign and what students can expect from ACH in 2008/09. Vote ACH for AMS executive! Visit www.voteach.com.
RWS
Team Radcliffe, Wang, and St. Clair (RWS) bring a balanced and comprehensive outlook to the AMS. Talia Radcliffe brings four years of diverse AMS experience, which gives her the skills to bring a holistic leadership to our student government. Like most students, Ken Wang has spent most of his time invested outside the AMS and brings a fresh outlook that represents the majority of students at Queen’s. Stephanie St. Clair has both corporate and club experience in the AMS that has given her the know-how to frankly and honestly take a critical look at how the Government side of the AMS represents and s students.
RWS is confronting crucial issues like communication, anti-oppression, academics, and sustainability head on by outlining realistic and achievable goals for their term in office.
‘An Engaged U.’ shows RWS’ commitment to infusing anti-oppression into all areas of the AMS to bring a systemic change to systemic issues. Success will be measured in incentive-based forums which will garner high participation not only through compensation, but because giving students real opportunities to engage with their representatives is long overdue. A critical restructuring of Frosh Week and campus media will broaden the appeal and accessibility of both these programs.
‘A Greener U.’ brings concrete solutions to sustainability issues by introducing standardized cross-campus recycling, an organic waste program, frequent campus farmer’s marker, and a critical transformation of what would be the former Tricolour Outfitters into a relevant space for the Earth Centre and the Oxfam Fair Trade Co-Operative.
‘A Smarter U.’ enhances Queen’s academics through better communication about courses and degree options through a syllabus bank and a cross-disciplinary credit database, by working with departments to begin transitioning from full-year to half-year courses to offer greater flexibility, and by advocating for more departments that fulfill student demands.
RWS will bring a balanced perspective to create real change.
WCW
This year it seems that the buzzword everywhere is change. But for Presidential Candidate Allison Williams, VP-Operations Candidate Andrew Cameron and VP-University Affairs Candidate Yanique Williams, Change is more than that. It is concrete ideas that are realistic. Change is what will happen if you vote WCW on January 29th and 30th.
Change in the attitude of the AMS. Change in its approach to students and its approach to business. Change for students.
Queen’s is changing. Queen’s has changed. While our campus receives a long-needed facelift, the AMS must adapt to these changes and to the changes in attitude and atmosphere on this campus. We as a student body are no longer satisfied with the status quo. Neither is Team WCW.
Focusing on four areas of improvement, Team WCW has committed to concrete goals that will pursue the changes necessary to bring the AMS into line with the goals of the student body and campus and will properly align the AMS for the future. WCW will focus on Approachability, ability, Advocacy, and Advancement. Guaranteed office hours will increase approachability and ensure that students know when they can find the exec in the office. ability will increase with a more transparent hiring practice and increased training. Initiatives such as the Robert Sutherland Room will be renewed as part of their commitment to advocacy along with a new Certificate in Cultural Diversity Studies and a commitment to work with Athletics to ensure a strong voice in response to the Review completed earlier this year. Advancement will be made in the services with the development of a plan for the transition to the Queen’s Centre. Clubs, the main source of involvement for students, will be given priority and increased .
Queen’s is changing. WCW is ready for that change. Are you?
REFERENDUM QUESTIONS
HCDS
The Health Service is asking students to an increase in the Health Service fee, by $10.00 per student. Why should you this? Because we want what you want – the best possible health care on campus.
In the past few years Health Services has faced multiple challenges: inadequate space, a province-wide scarcity of physicians, increased operating costs and shrinking budgets. In spite of these obstacles, in 2006-2007 the Health Service logged more than 25,000 visits from students for health care, responded to 6,000 phone calls for information/advice and reached 5,000 students through the health education and promotion programmes.
In 2007 major renovations were made to Health Service space with the financial of the University. The number of examining rooms increased significantly and an Urgent Care clinic was opened in September, permitting walk-in access to physicians. This has been a success, allowing more students to be seen in the fall term.
The Health Service portion of the Student Activity fee s programmes and services on campus, geared to students and not readily available in the community. These include health promotion programmes, travel counseling for students traveling for pleasure or educational purposes, equipment loans, free TB testing for academic programs and volunteering, flu shots, free medical certificates, free transfer of records. But we cannot continue to provide the level of service that you need and we want to give you without an increase in the Student Activity fee.
Your contribution will be targeted to two specific goals. The first will be to increase the number of appointments available and to decrease waiting times for appointments. The second goal will be to improve Health Promotion programming focused on the particular concerns of students.
On January 29th and 30th please help us help you. Vote “YES” for the Student Activity Fee increase.
LifeBeat
LifeBeat is the Life Sciences’ newspaper which is printed semi-annually free of charge for students and faculties. The LifeBeat publication is based entirely on students and faculty submissions and thus includes a wide variety of health related topics, student art works, departmental news, student events, and campus activities.
LifeBeat was founded in 2006 with a small group of students which has grown to become a very active and widely recognized organization within the Life Sciences program. We continue to grow in number and in readership each year. However, we are looking to expand our organization to encom the entire Queen’s community in order to reach-out to all students. Our aim is to foster communication between students and faculty at Queen’s and your is invaluable to our success.
Hard work and great dedication is put into every issue that is published and with the of Queen’s students, LifeBeat will continue to bring interesting and relevant stories for years to come.
Extra copies of LifeBeat can be found in the Life Sciences office in Botterell Hall. Our next issue will be printed in March’08.
Please direct your questions and concerns to [email protected]. Thank you very much for your .
Queen’s Amnesty International
Queen’s Amnesty International (http://clubs.myams.org/amnesty/) is a campus club and a ed member of Amnesty Canada. We are a like-minded group of students ed by our common desire to promote the cause of universal human rights. Through our weekly meetings and special events, we raise on-campus awareness of human rights issues, urge governments and corporations to stop human right abuses, and the activities of our parent organization, Amnesty Canada, through publicity and fundraising.
Amnesty International (AI) (www.amnesty.org) is a worldwide movement of people who campaign for internationally recognized human rights. In ing the Queen’s University chapter, or any other AI group, you in the fight for human rights with the other 2.2 million of the movement.
Weekly meetings held in Dunning 14, Wednesdays from 5:30-6:30, serve as a framework upon which are organized such human-rights-relevant events as lecture series, film screenings and postcard campaigns, as well as weekly letter-writing activities to heads of state and government in countries currently experiencing human rights violations.
Queen’s Amnesty International has operated on the basis of a $0.25 opt-out fee since 1999. This fee last went to referendum in 2005, and we are currently seeking renewal of the fee for a three-year term.
Queen’s Business Forum on the Fashion Industry
Queen’s Business Forum on the Fashion Industry (Q’BFFI) is a unique and refreshing Canadian student-run conference that, in its 4th year, has sparked interest from some of the most influential people in the fashion industry. Last year, students heard from Robin Kay (President of the Fashion Design Council of Canada), Brian Hill (CEO of Aritzia) and Ben Barry (Founder of Ben Barry Modeling Agency), among other notables. Our audience consists of student delegates from a wide range of faculties at Queen’s University, external delegates from universities nationwide, and Queen’s University professors along with fashion industry professionals.
Q’BFFI aims to give students an opportunity to network and learn from industry leaders who will provide guidance and direction to our aspiring young business people and artists. A goal of this innovative conference is to educate students about the diverse range of opportunities that exist within the fashion industry. A forum is provided whereby professionals can interact with each other and students, showcase their unique achievements and demonstrate how they contribute to the fashion industry. We plan to inform participants and set an example of the ways that they can be proactive leaders within the fashion industry in the areas of environmental sustainability and corporate social responsibility.
With your initial , Q’BFFI hopes to build a strong foundation for future years. Over the past year, we have fulfilled the hope of expanding the forum into a one of a kind multi-day conference attracting students, faculty , and industry leaders from across Canada. Q’BFFI’s long-term goals include increasing both the scope and size of the conference by increasing the number of attending delegates and speakers. We aspire to learn about current and emerging issues within the fashion industry from representatives on a global scale.
Queen’s Concrete Canoe Team
The Queen’s Concrete Canoe Team is a Civil Engineering Design Team which represents Queen’s each year at the Canadian National Concrete Canoe Competition (CNCCC), this year being held in Halifax, NS. Each year our team of dedicated and enthusiastic undergraduate students designs and builds a canoe made entirely of concrete and competes against other major Canadian universities.
The Concrete Canoe Team provides undergraduate students with a valuable opportunity to get involved in the Queen’s community outside of classes and, in many cases, to apply knowledge from the classroom. Activities within the Concrete Canoe Team range from mould, hull and concrete design to fibreglassing techniques to project management, although previous experience is certainly not necessary. Our goal, aside from competing in the CNCCC, is to provide students with real-world experience that will complement their studies, as well as spark their interest. This year, the portion of our funding which comes from you, the students, through AMS student fees is up for referendum. The fee amounts to $0.45 from each member of the AMS and is subject to individual opt-out.
This money is used to buy the supplies needed for the canoe and to reduce the cost of other expenses such as travel to the competition and transportation of the canoe. Although we actively pursue fundraising from corporate sponsorship, Queen’s alumni, and other of the Queen’s community, the continued of the student body is central to our success.
Please vote for the continuation of the Queen’s Concrete Canoe Team fee of $0.45, subject to individual opt-out.
Your funding is necessary for the Queen’s Concrete Canoe Team to remain competitive with other universities and to represent our school well at the CNCCC.
Queen’s Concrete Toboggan Team
The Great Northern Concrete Toboggan Race (GNCTR) is a university design competition held annually in a major Canadian city. It has been a legitimate Canada-wide design competition since 1976 and involves the design, construction, and racing of concrete toboggans. The five-d event is attended by over 20 of the country’s most prestigious schools and includes races, technical exhibits, oral presentations, reports, and a final award ceremony. The Great Northern Concrete Toboggan Race is a unique engineering competition that encourages both innovation and teamwork The Queen’s Concrete Toboggan Team has a proven track record with seven years of successful participation in the competition and four top five qualifications. Competing in the GNCTR is an exceptional opportunity for students to apply the skills learned in the classroom to a practical engineering situation. The entire design and construction process is performed by students, as are all the other aspects of the team, such as fundraising and budgeting. In addition to the technical experience to be gained from deg and constructing a concrete toboggan and technical exhibit, students gain engineering business experience from performing such tasks as project management and budgeting. Funds from the AMS student fees help keep the Queen’s Concrete Toboggan Team competitive and allow students to participate in the annual competition.
Queen’s First Aid
Queen’s First Aid is the 24/7 campus emergency response team. Over the past number of years our call volume, as well as our event coverage, has increased significantly. This increase has proportionately resulted in a larger amount of money being spent on equipment than in years prior.
To increase our outreach to the Queen’s community, our goal is to certify more instructors to be able to offer more first aid courses on campus. For this to happen we need to allocate more of our budget to this area. Finally, in the fall the AMS made a rule stating that clubs can only have one student fee. Due to this, QFA lost its $0.50 opt-out fee used for promotional and training purposes. Increasing our mandatory fee from $2.50 to $3.50 will make up for this loss, and will also allow us to meet the increasing demand for our service. This increase will also allow us to look at the possibility of further expanding our operations, to better serve the Queen’s community.
Queen’s Musical Theatre
Queen’s Musical Theatre is a student-run organization which stages two professional-quality productions per year.
We aim to provide an environment at Queen’s conducive to positive learning experiences for students within the framework of a working theatre company. Money collected from opt-out fees help to provide learning experiences for club not only through our productions, but also workshops from guest artists and cabaret evenings. Recent productions within the Queen’s community include Hair, Cabaret, and Into the Woods.
Queen’s National Undergraduate Conference on Medicine
The Queen’s National Undergraduate Conference on Medicine (QNUCM) is a quickly growing AMS club with a current Executive Board of 13 , 30 on-campus volunteers, and over 50 external ambassadors from 9 different universities across Canada. This coming November, QNUCM will bring together 300 students from across the nation, gathered on Queen’s campus to execute its 4th annual Conference.
QNUCM provides a unique opportunity for students from a diverse background to engage in discussions and debates about the future of Canadian healthcare. QNUCM is the largest conference on campus and the only undergraduate conference of its kind in the country.
QNUCM is designed to expose a diverse group of delegates to the breadth of opportunities available in healthcare with the goal of introducing non-traditional ways to apply education, entrepreneurship and energy to medicine. Experts from various fields are invited to speak about issues related to current medicine and highlight the interdisciplinary nature of healthcare in seminars covering technological, societal, political, economic and ethical perspectives that are of current concern.
Recognizing that research is vital to the ongoing improvement of health care, QNUCM also hosts The Queen’s National Health Sciences Research Competition that will highlight student discovery in any discipline with direct applications to the medical/health sciences.
Delegates of QNUCM will be the next generation of holistically and globally minded students equipped with a broad set of tools and background knowledge to allow them to be effective leaders for the future healthcare industry.
Queen’s Oxfam
“Do you agree that Queen’s University should adopt the DSP (a policy for sweat free clothing) and provide more fair trade products on campus?”
Queen’s University is ambitiously working to increase its status on the global stage — Engaging the World. Queen’s Oxfam, a rights-based student activist group, feels it is important that in this process we do not lose sight of our obligation to ethically acquire the goods we consume on campus. This plebiscite question is motivated by the need to demonstrate to the university istration that students are concerned with the current lack of commitment to ethically traded goods.
The Designated Suppliers Program was developed by United Students Against Sweatshops and endorsed by the Worker Rights Consortium with the aim of ensuring that workers’ rights are protected in the production of university apparel. The DSP would require university licensees (companies that are authorized to use the Queen’s logo) to use factories that, among other things, have proven that they provide workers with a living wage, healthy working environments, and freedom of association. So far, about forty universities in the United States have adopted the Designated Suppliers Program. Through this plebiscite question, we hope to demonstrate to the istration that Queen’s students are also concerned about workers’ rights, and would like to see Queen’s sign onto the DSP.
Fair trade goods both encom the DSP, as well as identify complementary products which are also ethically traded, such as: teas, coffee, sugar and spices. Queen’s University consumes large quantities of these goods on a regular basis, including in its cafeterias, coffee shops and bars; Queen’s Oxfam is seeking a commitment to expand the number of fair trade options on campus. ing this motion will assist Queen’s Oxfam in demonstrating to the istration that students are concerned and aware of these important issues.
Students for Accessible Education
Students for Accessible Education is a group that seeks to promote economic, political and academic accessibility for all current and prospective students at Queen’s University and in the greater Kingston community.
We promote economic accessibility through campaigns that ask the Ontario government to invest more in grants and bursaries for students in financial need and/or to the lower the cost of education for all students.
We promote political accessibility primarily through the Center for Good Governance and Transparency, a research project and archive co-founded by Students for Accessible Education and the Coalition for Accessible Education Kingston (CAEK) that conducts interviews with past and present of the A.M.S. and the governing bodies of Queen’s University (The Board of Trustees, the Senate, and the University Council). The objective is to increase the student understanding of the power structures of the university so that we are better equipped to pursue political objectives in the interests of all students. We were also involved this past year in co-founding a grassroots network that is opposing the repression of political dissent on campus through certain stipulations in the most recent draft of the proposed Student Code of Conduct. Finally, we promote academic accessibility by assisting and facilitating alternative education spaces and projects offered free to the Kingston community. We hope that initiatives such as these will help bridge the unfortunate divide between the City of Kingston and Queen’s University.
Students for Corporate Social Respobsibility
Students for Corporate Social Responsibility (SCSR) was founded in 2004 by a diverse group of Queen’s students, SCSR is dedicated to promoting the issue of corporate social responsibility through a number of means. These include organizing on-campus events, encouraging communication between different faculties, promoting the integration of corporate social responsibility into the curriculum at Queen’s University, and presenting a conflict-free diamond campaign before Valentine’s Day. Ultimately, we encourage the students of today to become the responsible business leaders of tomorrow. As we approach our Triennial Review, we are asking for a $0.10 increase in our fee, subject to individual opt-out. This would raise the SCSR opt-out fee to $0.30 per student. As co-chairs, we hope to give the future of this club a firm foundation from a reputable history to financial sustainability. By ing our move to increase our opt-out fee, you will help promote corporate social responsibility and sustainability throughout Queen’s University.
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