The only team running in this year’s AMS executive election wants to revive Queen’s student identity.
AMS Presidential candidate Jason Kim, Comm ’24, AMS Vice-Presidential (Operations) candidate Nicolas David Brasset Duque, ArtSci ’24, and AMS Vice-President (University Affairs) candidate Noah Mawji, ArtSci ’24, known as Team JNN, sat down with The Journal to discuss their platform.
Team JNN wants to improve the relationship between the AMS and students, while keeping Queen’s traditions alive.
“Students at Queen’s have lost their student identity, their student pride, and quite frankly, what it really means to be at a historically prestigious institution to strive for academic excellence,” Kim said.
Team JNN’s three-pronged platform consists of redefining what the AMS means to students, reviving the Queen’s student identity, and representing students effectively as the leaders of student government.
Redefine
For JNN, running uncontested in the AMS election speaks to a wider disconnect between students and student government—they want to redefine that relationship.
With Mawji’s previous experience as ASUS’s Partners in Education Finance Coordinator, he knows firsthand how exclusive student government can be. According to Team JNN, many upper-year students don’t even know what the AMS is.
“We don’t want it to be the case the AMS is a group of people, a small group of people, who’ve perhaps been involved in student governance [for] their whole undergraduate [degree],” Mawji said.
The team proposes increasing the number of elected representatives who are voting at AMS Assembly, especially within smaller faculties. The team pointed to ConEd, Kinesiology, and Health Sciences specifically.
If more students can participate in AMS Assembly, students will feel more connected with the AMS, JNN explained.
Team JNN acknowledged a large part of their plan will depend on marketing the new positions and plans to communicate with students via social media and information sessions. They hope to send an email to students every month with summaries of motions ed during assembly.
The AMS Communications Director currently sends a monthly newsletter to all undergraduate students.
According to team JNN, a lack of student engagement with the AMS isn’t produced by indifference, but a lack of information.
“Students [on] this campus aren’t aware of the type of decisions AMS does get involved in,” Duque said.
Revive
All three candidates were deeply impacted as of the class of 2024—an experience they said has forever changed how they feel about Queen’s.
“Coming in at the peak of COVID-[19] in 2020, I didn’t get orientation, I didn’t get anything. I didn’t even know why I was there,” Kim said.
In conversations with alumni, the team feels the Queen’s student identity was lost during the pandemic—they want to bring it back. Reviving student identity will include revitalizing lost traditions, increasing on-campus club engagement, and connecting with the Kingston community, the team explained.
“They’ll [alumni] say something in Gaelic, I’m like, sorry bro, I got here during COVID-[19]. I have no idea what you’re saying,’” Mawji said.
Mawji met with current AMS Clubs Commissioner Dreyden George to discuss how to improve club engagement next year.
For Kim, the Queen’s identity isn’t solely based on experiences at Queen’s, but the relationships students build with the community and within extracurriculars.
“What it means to be a Queen’s student isn’t only to strive for academic excellence, but to contribute back to the society of Queen’s, to help others who have been in the same position as we grow,” Kim said.
Though team JNN acknowledged the Queen’s identity has sometimes involved heavy binge drinking and other party-centric stereotypes, they maintain bringing back traditions doesn’t mean bringing back all the activities associated with them.
According to Kim, students binge drink because they don’t feel a sense of belonging at Queen’s. To reduce drinking at traditionally alcohol-fueled events such as Homecoming, JNN promised to run more sanctioned events.
“I personally believe because certain things have negative connotations attached to them in the past, doesn’t mean that there isn’t a chance for fixing our mistakes and being able to take the positive out of what was once there and be able to move forward with it.,” Kim said.
Represent
Though they’re running uncontested, team JNN is willing to work hard to gain students’ trust and represent their voices.
Representing the diverse student body at Queen’s is a priority for the candidates, but so is bursting the bubble of student government. As a team bridging faculties, and with diverse past experiences, they believe they’re the right people to represent all students.
When Duque first arrived at Queen’s, he was aware the school was majority white.
“I’m proud to be able to show students and show people that you can get involved and you can get into leadership positions, even in a majority white school,” Duque said.
Though they are an all-male team, JNN wants to represent female students as well, and believes listening to female students’ concerns on sexual violence and other issues is the way forward. Brasset Duque itted it’ll be a challenge and there’s no perfect solution, but the team is mutually concerned for students’ safety.
“All three of us do have a mutual concern for safety. All of us—Jason and Noah both have girlfriends, I have a lot of friends who are girls—we all have a mutual worry,” Brasset Duque said.
“A big aspect of our job is just listening and hearing other people’s perspectives,” Kim added.
The team doesn’t consider themselves co-workers, they see each other as a brotherhood. They believe their strong bond makes them a dedicated team that can be at the helm of the largest student society on campus.
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Kim and Mawji met in high school and decided to run after connecting with Duque online in December. After telling his mother he wanted to run, Duque re her cautioning him against it.
“She advised me, ‘Don’t go into AMS. Just finish your degree and get out,’” Duque said.
Despite cautions against it, and the opportunity to graduate, all three candidates in team JNN have chosen to stay for one reason.
“The reason we’re running is because we care about Queen’s, we love Queen’s,” Mawji said.
Students can cast ballots for the AMS executive on Feb. 6 and 7. In an uncontested election, students can vote for Team JNN, abstain from voting, or vote no, indicating they don’t have confidence in JNN’s leadership.
In the case of a no-confidence vote, the AMS moves into a special assembly where all undergraduate students are eligible to form a last-minute team.
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