Presidential Candidate: Sarah Elliot

RF: What do you believe the responsibilities of the president are?

SE: There are two sides to the president’s job: there is the internal side, the everyday function of the student’s union. And there is the external advocacy, advocating for students with the big guys. And making sure the team is working smoothly and helping out with the other execs and sub-execs and make sure everyone is good and happy.

RF: What qualifications do you have for this job?

SE: I have been in the student union for three years now, ever since I first stepped foot at StFX. I have sat on every role you can do at the student’s union; I was a councilor my first year and my second year I was a sub-exec and vice president of Chillis. Currently I am the vice president external affairs and sit on the executive board.

So I have seen every single side of the students unions, so that’s the hard skills and lived experience but on the other side I feel I am a very friendly person and I’m able to talk to a lot of people and I like the idea that students can come to me and I can be a fair voice to represent them. I really love the Union it and I know how it works and I think there is a lot of value it brings students and I want to be able to take on that responsibility and make it really really great. 

RF: What are your pillars/platforms?

SE: I have three main pillars and then three specific policy goals under each of them. The first is student wellness, and underneath that I want to see the implementation of the post-secondary mental health standard, which is an overarching standard for all post-secondary institutions in Canada to make sure they are prioritizing student mental wellness. It is very detailed but concerns policies around teachers and students and how teachers and faculty can support students. So, I really want to work with the administration to pass that. So that StFX is really prioritizing student mental wellness. 

The second one is education about consent and sexualized violence. I have been working with the vice president of students and we just got funding from the provincial government to make consent modules for education on consent and sexualized violence. It will be for new and returning students and it will be kind of like a driver’s license, you will have to fill it out and read a little and learn more about sexualized violence and consent. We want to be as proactive as possible and try to change the culture before students are even here. And the last part is modernizing the student food resource center and looking at food insecurity in more of a holistic way, teaching students how to be healthy and make balanced meals and diet and where to buy affordable groceries. I want everyone to be able to access the student food resource center because we have the fund, and everyone deserves an equal opportunity to use it.

My second platform is advocacy, I am very passionate about it. I have one main point for federal, provincial and StFX advocacy. Students Nova Scotia has been advocating for international students to receive Canadian healthcare when they come to Canada and currently they can’t access it if they want to go home in the summer, but now we are seeing a change and hopefully we can get that for next years 2021 provincial budget. And on the federal side I want to work on the indigenization of university campuses across Canada and bring more indigenous students to the table when it comes to making decisions and see what they want and need. For StFX advocacy I want to work on making StFX more sustainable and minimizing our ecological footprint and everyone should be playing a part in climate action whether it is vegetarian options of knowing where to throw your garbage in the right place to know where it should go.

My last Pillar is for students by students which is the student union moto, which for me means an increase in student consultation. I find that student consultation can be tokenizing, they may take a student and hear what they have to say but that student could not be affected by the issue at hand at all. I want to use our society coordinator to be able to contact each society and create a chain so if I don’t know about an issue I can contact students that are in society’s related to the issue at hand and make sure that students who are affected and knowledge about the issue are consulted. The second one is mobile office hours to make executives more accessible to students, say doing office hours for an hour in in Starbucks or a day in Mulroney, it will allow easier access and let students ask more questions and get to know their representatives more. And finally, the point is transparency with the marketing team, so making sure students know where their money is going and what it is doing. To ensure that students now just what their student union is doing, whether it be advocacy for students or running the Inn or the free drive home service.

RF: What is the first thing you are going to do if you are elected?

SE: For transition I want to make sure that students coming into these roles are getting the proper training and are adequately prepared and know what they are getting themselves into and feel confident with what they are doing. I want to prioritize students feeling comfortable in their roles so they can be successful for the rest of the year.