Presidential Candidate Profile: Dhruv Patel

RF: What do you think the responsibilities of the Students’ Union President are?

DP: A representative of all of the students at StFX as well as working with the Nova Scotia government and the federal government to do better for the students and raise questions and issues that students have.

RF: What qualifications do you have for this job?

DP: I feel that in leadership you don’t need to have qualifications, but I was raised around politics. My father was in parliament in India and I was raised around seeing him work. I also run and cofounded the Indianan society here at StFX. I also grew up around the family business, which is international, so I feel confident in handling the business side and using compromise in trying to change meal hall times. I believe that people learn things as time goes on and learn things from experience.

RF: What are your pillars/platforms you are running on?

DP: The timing of the meal halls is very awkward, and I have talked with many students and this seems to be quite a problem. Students aren’t able to eat after night classes and lots of athletes are affected. There should also be more daytime events so that first year students or student’s underage can get to know more about the university. I also want to do a lot of international events because there are a lot of international students who come through and it would allow students to learn more about other cultures.

RF: What is the first thing you will do if elected?

DP: I want to try to convince them [meal hall] to let students use the swipe for all items in meal hall and also for them to add some more salads and work on the times they can be open. I want to get student support and hand out surveys to find out what students want in the dining facilities.