The Engineering Society (EngSoc) sees two Vice-Presidential positions go uncontested in the election.
Alexis Paredes, Sci ’26, running for vice-president (student affairs), and Ian Schaffer, Sci ’27, running for vice-president (finance and istration), are stepping up to the podium in the EngSoc election.
Ahead of their debate on Jan. 23 at 7 p.m. in Beamish-Munro Hall, both candidates spoke with The Journal to share their visions and priorities for the year ahead.
Alexis Paredes, Vice-President (Student Affairs)
Paredes, a mechanical engineering student, has her eyes fixed on improving accessibility, equity, and student within EngSoc. Student Affairs within the society is one of the largest portfolios, overseeing six portfolios, including clubs and conferences, communications, design, governance, social issues, and student life.
If elected, one of her main priorities is to enhance accessibility to mental health resources for engineering students. She plans to work closely with the Smith Faculty of Engineering to ensure services like EngWell Hub, which includes the Engineering Mental Health Steward program, an initiative directed at fostering a culture of mental health awareness and to engineering students, is accessible to all students.
“We have such a large body of students that communicating effectively is important,” Paredes said.
In addition to advocating for mental health, Paredes hopes to restructure the marketing strategy of communications in EngSoc, focusing on simplifying information and making resources more digestible, especially for students with little to no prior experience.
Paredes aims to improve the organization of resources and communications within EngSoc by addressing the current lack of structure. She plans to categorize information more clearly, ensuring students aren’t overwhelmed by disorganization and can easily find what they need.
Paredes’s confident that her experience managing multiple roles, including different clubs and her role as the operations manager at Clark Hall Pub while focusing full time on her academics, has given her strong time management skills that will enable her to successfully balance the demands of the position.
Ian Schaffer, Vice-President (Finance and istration)
If elected, Schaffer would oversee all internal and financial technical operations of EngSoc, while managing the directors of finance, human resources, information technology, and internal processes.Drawing on his experience as a first-year project coordinator and his current role as EngSoc’s Director of Internal Processes, he has developed systems such as reservation tools, automated forms, and schedulers. He believes these initiatives have equipped him for the vice-presidential role, where he plans to streamline operations, implement failsafes, and enhance error detection, ultimately making it easier for other campus groups to interact with society systems.
“This improved system will contribute to the Queen’s engineering community by making it easier for d groups to interact with society finance, human resources, and information technology systems,” Schaffer wrote in a statement to The Journal.
Recognizing delays and inefficiencies in how d groups interact with society processes, Schaffer plans to tackle these challenges within the financial, human resources, or information technology front head-on. His agenda includes implementing -friendly, automated systems in his portfolio to reduce errors and delays and improve communication channels throughout EngSoc.
“I also plan to increase accessibility to financial and istrative information by making widely available tutorials on important topics, which will allow d groups to have a greater sense of belonging due to information being easily accessible to them,” Schaffer said.
ability is a cornerstone of his vision. According to Schaffer, he’s committed to clear and timely communication with students, gathering from those engaging with his work, and ensuring transparency through regular updates and reports.
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