The VP internal gets criticized a lot for just being a party planner, would you agree with that assessment or do you see a bigger role and if so what else?

Well, I definitely agree with the criticism of it being too often a party planner, because I think that is largely what it is now, which is a problem, no question. My actual intent in internalizing the internal portfolio would be to just relate more to the faculties and actually try to build campus community. Break down apathy and create more engagement on campus. Engage politically, engage socially, engage with more students, and actually do something aside from just studying.

Frosh is going to be changing next year, how do you feel about the changes and how the process to change and accommodate SSMU to the changes has been going on right now?

The process has been good, I’ve had the opportunity to work fairly closely on it, I do work for the first year office, so it’s currently my job to recruit people and convince them that this is actually a good idea. I think it’s a step in the right direction in that it is a more inclusive event, it’s not just the crazy Frosh party that it can be, so I think that by having people be Discover McGill tour leaders, academic advising leaders, as well as being Frosh party leaders, it gives people the chance to actually make friends and remember who they met more than a week afterwards.

If you could accomplish one thing next year, what would it be?

Getting orientation off the ground and making sure that it is something people want and people are interested in, we’re trying to use it as a spring-board both at the administration level and at the SSMU level, to start engaging through the entire year, so having that actually work, and having people be pleased about the event, and see the advantages. It will also help build relationships with the Milton-Parc community, so having a successful Orientation Week, and getting people behind that idea and in support of how it works.

If you were a drink what would you be?

I’d probably be an Old Fashioned because has a lot of parts to it, it’s not something that you can just get thrown together, it’s something that actually has a lot of parts that make it a tasty drink and it’s also something that has passed the test of time as far as mixed drinks can go.

As you know, there are going be some major changes happening to Frosh next year. How do you feel about these changes, how do you feel that they’ve been handled by Tom Fabian, the current VP Internal?

If they’re done correctly, which I feel I could do, then they could be amazing.   I think the new schedule is really great in that it really embraces student independence.  But I don’t think [Fabian] is being nearly as vocal or as involved in getting faculty societies involved in the decision-making.  He hasn’t formed an opinion or stood up for student independence, which I think is really important.

The VP Internal position is often criticized as being nothing more than party planner. Do you see the role as more than that?

I absolutely do. One major way that it is is that the VP internal should be there to represent clubs, societies, students on campus. One of my ideas is to get clubs more involved in the planning of events. Being there for support and promotion of student-run initiatives is a major goal that is sometimes overlooked.

That being said, do you have an ideas for new events?

I don’t know if it would be possible to really coordinate this, but I would love to have the clubs and societies run … a big field day. It would be sort of like Street Fest, but more interactive.  

Another challenge often faced by the VP internal stems from McGill’s location. How do you engage students in SSMU events when your competition is the city of Montreal?

 I don’t see the city of Montreal as a competition, I see it as amazing, and you can work with that. Why not embrace [it] and spread more people into the community?  

If you had a hot tub time machine and could travel back to any time or place in history and high-five one person, who would it be and why?

Rosalind Franklin, the woman who got kind of screwed out of her Nobel Prize.  She’s helped [Francis Crick and James Watson] with [the discovery of] DNA.  She was a scientist back in a day when there weren’t a lot of female scientists and she didn’t try and use her femininity to get help from people, she tried to really try to find facts on her own. 

With regards to the administration people have adversarial relationships towards it or cooperative relations, where do you think your approach falls?

 I think we have to be ourselves as student representatives but also a resource to the university to get information into what students want. So it’s important to work with the administration at that level and make sure we provide the support they need in order to make sure that information is getting out. But also, it’s important to stand by SSMU’s principles and fight for them. It has to be item by item, and we have to respond to the student body.

What do you think would be the most important issues that you would be addressing next year?

Making sure that there is more open and accessible education, inside and outside of the classroom. Also, making sure that SSMU-administration relations are a lot more transparent and open, and that’s also working with the executive team making sure that we are a coherent team, there are a lot of opportunities for the VP UA to work with every single other portfolio. Finally, it’s very much about creating a new culture of community, and I think one of the most important things is increasing the portion of international students, the services aren’t adequate for them, we need to make sure that there is enough support in terms of health services, mental health services, off-campus housing that’s affordable,  and make sure that there’s affordable food on campus.

So I think it’s very much about creating a global community and these three ideas have to be implemented in sync. It has to be done together in order for it to be cohesive and substantial and to actually affect change.

How do you feel your work as equity commissioner has prepared you for taking on the responsibilities of the UA position, and why UA?

 I think what I’ve done as equity commissioner has kind of taught me a methodology which is extremely appropriate for the UA, it’s about dealing with different issues, and looking at different perspectives and trying to put students first. As equity commissioner I have demonstrated that I have the ability to reach out to everyone. I think my experience definitely suits me in terms of dealing with different levels of student governance at McGill.

If you could go back in time and high five one person, who would it be?

Let’s go Canadian, Trudeau. I can high-five Trudeau, right after he did the pirouette, I could do that, that would be like badass.

I'm currently doing work for the assistant director of finance here at McGill, I'm doing research on IPOs. So people definitely trust my financial expertise, I understand financial statements, I did budgeting this summer for work. I did a lot of journal entries, low level accounting this summer for a Winnipeg company.

I want to meet with all the heads of clubs and services at McGill just to go over their budgets, my position is definitely not apolitical, but I feel it's more apolitical, so yes the Council site is extremely important I realize that, but it's more important to be able to deal with the 3.3 million dollars in a financially stable way and that's crucial, we're talking about the sustainability of SSMU.

What plans do you have for the Book Bazaar?

Definitely online, I think there were initiatives to start it this year, there's definitely McGill classifieds but I don't think it gets used enough, it's not user-friendly enough. And that would be also a one time fixed cost instead of continually paying every year, you set up a website, and then it lasts forever.

What is your vision for Gert's?

Depending on how much power I'm given or how much sway I have with council, I'd like to renovate it now. But if not, definitely keep up with the promotions, so as much as I can do, I definitely don't want to delegate the responsibility away, and I think that's unique to me.

How will you work to make sure that the investment decisions that are made by SSMU's VP Finance are represented by the entire student body?

I'm not going to be investing a hundred percent to the equities of something like Goldman Sachs, to somebody who is tearing up the rainforest, again I said I'm here to make money but definitely I'm going to be working very closely with FERC and I'm bringing back the investment advisor at Council.

If you were a mixed drink what would you be and why?

I like a gin and cranberry juice, because cranberry juice is so innocent but gin's got a little bit of fun too so I think it's a pleasant mix.