Candidates in the Rideau River Residence Association (RRRA) 2018 election geared up for an exciting debate on March 7, with swarms of students gathering to support the heavily contested slates.
Three positions were up for grabs: president, vice-president (administration) and vice-president (programming), with candidates running across three slates: Ignite Change, RRRAving Ravens, and Your Voice.
Vice-president (programming)
The vice-president (programming) candidates were the first to take the stage, with three one minute questions for each candidate and an additional minute for rebuttals.
Chief electoral officer (CEO) Kieran Moloney began the debate by introducing the candidates and allowing them to share their names and highlight their campaign promises.
Daisy Kasper, the vice-president (programming) candidate from RRRAving Ravens, kicked off the debate.
“By voting for RRRAving Ravens, you’re going to be able to have a better year next year,” Kasper said. She promised physical and sexual health awareness, more concerts and parties, and more transportation options on reading week.
Kasper also said she wants to “create a space for [residence students] to have fun and let loose, which is what res is all about.” She later added in response to different a question, “That’s really what res is all about—feeling safe and making new friends.”
Mali Mapani from Your Voice spoke second. Her campaign promises included adding a boat cruise and creating better Frosh and sports events. She also said she wants to make the events more open so “everyone feels welcome and accepted as well.”
Douglas Cochrane, the candidate from Ignite Change said, “I look to RRRA as an opportunity for growth and development, not only for myself, but also for the students.”
He campaigned on implementing more events, culture fairs, and a student bursary for RRRA’s 50th anniversary to help “alleviate stress” caused by the expense of university. Later in the debate he said he wants to partner with Our Turn for more sexual violence prevention training in residence.
In response to Moloney’s question of how candidates plan to increase the number of students that attend RRRA events, Kasper focused on using social media, tabling, and going out to meet students in person. She said she wants RRRA to “feel like a community, rather than just an office that’s in Res Comm.”
Mapani said she would allow for more advertisement through social media, emailing, and having residence fellows share events with students.
“I am a very outward person so I would like to go into the community myself and let people know about the events that are going on,” she said.
Cochrane said he’ll use competitions such as a Residence Cup and prizes like pizza parties to incentive student involvement.
Vice-president (administration)
The vice-president (administration) position was perhaps the loudest half of the night, with the audience employing drums, hooting devices and chants to support their chosen candidates.
Sissi De Flaviis, the Your Voice candidate, said she wants to expand the RRRA job bank—which was implemented by Jacob Howell of her slate—and to advocate for printers in each residence building.
De Flaviis said, “It’s an honour for me to be here—on my birthday—to fend for this role and give back to the community that has given me so much over the last couple of years.”
Ben Jelley, vice-presidential candidate from Ignite Change, said that he wants to make RRRA more transparent.
“I want to make sure council members are notified of the meeting with the actual 48-hours notice and that they are sent out the agenda and minutes on time,” he said. “That’s something that wasn’t done this year.”
Jelley outlined his ideas, saying he wants to live-stream RRRA events, improve food options in the CAF, and save students money by re-introducing a RRRA discount card for local and university businesses. He also wants to inform students on opt-outs for services they might not need and re-negotiate the student card replacement fee. Later in the debate, he also said he planned to lobby the university for more vegan food options.
Kareem AlWazir, RRRAving Ravens candidate, entered to a massive set of applause, along with hooting and drumming from the audience.
“Next year will be a kickass year,” AlWazir said.
He said he wants to implement more jobs by making Abstentions open 24-hours.
“The only thing that we need is your voice to support us to have the office next year as we will ignite change in the upcoming year, while you support RRRAving Ravens,” he said, as the audience laughed and cheered.
During the rebuttal, AlWazir questioned the Your Voice candidate, De Flaviis, on why the current RRRA council didn’t advertise the job banks and council meetings.
Jelley also criticized the job bank, saying it only had three job postings, two of which were later invalidated.
“I would hardly call that a job bank,” he said.
For the final question, candidates focused on amending the RRRA constitution.
De Flaviis said all the candidates struggled to understand the constitution during the election. She said she wants to review it so “it is easily understandable by everyone, there’s no miscommunication and there’s no like different interpretations to it.”
Jelley said he agreed with De Flaviis, adding that he wants to see electoral reform.
“The electoral code isn’t super clear,” he said.
AlWazir said this year, RRRA struggled to meet quorum at council meetings and floor representatives didn’t know what was going on. To make the association more transparent he said he planned to educate floor representatives to ensure good leaders.
Presidential debate
Brittany Galler, the current vice-president (programming) and the presidential candidate from Ignite Change, was the first to share her campaign promises, which included sexual violence prevention and support, piloting a 24-hour Abstentions, removing the 25-cent credit card surcharge at Abstentions, and restructuring the space to make it easier for students in wheelchairs to get around. She also said she’d work to continue improving the job bank.
Ahmad Taha from RRRAving Ravens was up next. He campaigned on improving sponsorship so all RRRA’s events are funded, creating more events and profit for the association. He also promised to implement a residence hotline and a mental health campaign to help first years overcome depression.
Jacob Howell, the current vice-president (administration) and Your Voice candidate, said he would to improve and expand RRRA “beyond anyone’s expectations.”
Howell said he plans to acquire government grants for the association, renovate the guest-pass system at the cafeteria to make it more affordable to bring friends, and to implement a RRRA alumni meal plan.
When discussing budgeting, Galler said the current executives have meetings once a month to talk about finances. She also said she has personal experience as she currently manages the programming budget.
“We’re still on budget, we’re actually under budget right now, so I’d say that I have some good experience with that,” Galler said.
Howell also touched on his experience as a vice-president, saying the association budgets for zero profit, zero loss.
“We are a student service,” he said. “We’re not here to make money off of students, we’re here to serve them.”
Taha promised to upload RRRA’s financial documents to make sure residence students know where RRRA’s money is being allocated.
During the rebuttal, both Howell and Galler agreed with Taha that the budget should be posted online.
All the candidates agreed that sexual violence awareness was an important issue and touched on the importance of the Our Turn movement. Galler promised to continue developing Our Turn and ensuring that all RRRA staff has sexual violence training. Taha said he wants to educate students on sexual harassment, and Howell said he’d advocate for survivors by changing the university’s policies.
Galler questioned how her opponents would address rape culture, when neither of them used the words “sexual violence” in their answers.
Taha declined to comment, but Howell replied saying, “I have no issue admitting [that] rape culture 100 per cent exists.” He continued, “You think it won’t happen to someone you know, and then one day you look to your left, to your right, and it’s right there.”
Howell again urged the need for the next RRRA council to address the issue.
For the last question, Moloney threw the candidates “a curve ball.”
“In the spirit of an open and fair election, I’m going to ask each candidate to say one nice thing about one of their presidential opponents,” Moloney said.
Galler mentioned Taha’s passion, citing that it’s his second year running for RRRA. She also said Howell had been a great partner and said she hopes they’ll continue working together next year. Taha mentioned Galler and Howell’s commitment to RRRA, while Howell said it had been “an absolute pleasure” working with Galler. He also complimented Taha.
“You’re very upfront, and I actually love that,” Howell said to Taha.
Maloney thanked the candidates for their comments, saying, “Politics doesn’t have to be all mean and dirty.”
The candidates gave their closing remarks before the debate came to an end.
Residence students voted via online ballots on March 9.
Photo by Rachel Emmanuel
