Federation of Students Elections

Hello undergraduate students,

My name is Matthew Colphon, and I’m running to be the president of FEDS for the 2010-2011 year. In this introduction I’ll briefly introduce you to myself, my vision for FEDS, and issues I plan to address over the next year. For more information please email mcolphon@uwaterloo.ca.

About me

I’m a 3B Science and Business (Hydrogeology) student and the only executive candidate currently on co-op. My co-op experience to date has been focused on various aspects of business from consulting to corporate governance in organizations from 6 to 60,000 people. This gives me the experience to head the corporate aspects of the Federation of Students, by understanding the viewpoints of a company with a small number of employees as well as the challenges of working with a large organization like the University of Waterloo or municipal governments.

In addition to my co-op experience I’ve been involved with a variety of different organizations on campus since coming to Waterloo. These include being an executive on the St. Jerome’s Residence Council, donning for two previous academic terms at UW Place, and being a Federation Orientation Committee (FOC) member and an executive with the Science and Business Students’ Association (SBSA) conference. I’ve been a FEDS student councillor for seven academic terms, a member of the board of directors for the past three academic terms, and have sat on council subcommittees including the Governance Awareness Committee, Internal Funding Committee and Budget prior to and during my terms. This breadth of experience has given me a broad view of many student groups on campus, and the unique viewpoints they have, while also allowing me to become deeply involved with a few key organizations.

View of FEDS

Over the last three and a half years I’ve been able to see a fair number of changes in the Federation of Students and the university as a whole, and a few things have stood out to me. Firstly, I feel that one of the largest issues that FEDS faces is that many students don’t consciously relate to it. While virtually every full-time undergraduate student uses multiple FEDS offerings regularly, few can actually outline what FEDS does. One of my overarching goals for the year is to increase the awareness of FEDS with students, and to make sure that the offerings that students want to see are given to them.

Vision

My high-level vision for FEDS is that it will be able to serve the undergraduate students of the University of Waterloo in its capacity as a Student Government to the best of its abilities. This includes having a goal achieving governance structure, as well as being a viable corporation and a model student life organization. In addition, as the university expands on both the main campus and satellite campuses, the Federation must ensure that it continues to be a strong representative of the interests of the growing undergraduate body.

Key issues

Over the next year I plan to put emphasis on the following issues

• Student security on campus
  With an increasing population issues of security on campus, from theft to more violent crime are a growing concern. I believe that a comprehensive review of the effectiveness of our current security approach - and its ability to handle the concerns of the next few years - needs to be undertaken in conjunction with UW Police and other stakeholders.
• Impact of increased enrolment on student space and service availability
  The sixth decade plan outlines a goal to increase the undergraduate student population to 24,000 students by 2017. Right now we’re already at 25,000 undergraduates with plans for further expansion in the graduate student population. Feds needs to work with the university to ensure that student services meet the standard of a world class institution.
• Status of student housing near campus
  The deteriorating quality of student housing has lowered the morale of students and caused problems in the neighbourhoods near campus. Working with the City of Waterloo, the plan governing Northdale and other student populated areas needs to be updated to ensure that the ‘student ghetto’ is only one in name.
• Effectiveness of current student representation models
  The role of council within FEDS and its overall effectiveness have both been questioned by numerous students. It’s time that the role of councillors and minimum expectations of their efforts be properly defined.
• Quality of on-campus student life
  Despite recent efforts, Waterloo continues to be regarded as school with a strong career focus but a lack of dedication to student life. As a student union there is great potential to evolve our student life offerings to match the demands of various groups of students, and to bring students – especially those on satellite campuses – offerings that are adjusted for them.

Conclusion

I’d like to emphasise that I am a candidate with both relevant experience and good perspective on a number of issues and on student life as a whole. I would encourage you to continue reading into the platforms of all the candidates and attend as many of the public forums as possible, and most importantly to vote.

Matthew Colphon