Martlet questionnaire

Ariel tseng
for Director of Finance and Operations
At whAt point did you become interested in politics? whAt mAde you decide to run? I became interested in politics in high school when I was a total history buff. As far as student politics and the UVSS go, I started getting involved at the end of my first year through attending and speaking at a couple of events through the Womens Studies course union and the Students of Colour Collective. I decided to run for Directorat-Large last year because I liked being involved and it seemed like the natural decision for me. This year Im running again for an executive position because I have become really invested in the UVSS through the amount of work Ive put into growing our WheresTheFunding coalition and campaign for affordable education. I have also worked very closely with the current Director of Finance and Operations all year, developing health plan surveys, mediating between our managers and constituency groups, reviewing budgets and audits, working to develop a Responsible Investment Policy for the University, helping to create a long time strategic plan for the UVSS, and reviewing renovations to the SUB throughout the year. I feel it is my responsibility to continue the work that Ive done for students so we can continue to grow as a student society in the right direction while being financially sustainable. Im also a Type A workaholic and dont know what to do with my life if Im not constantly busy and have a lot of work, haha! would you consider pursuing politics beyond the scope of A university setting? Probably not. Elections are bad for my health. which federAl politicAl pArty do your support/ feel most closely reflects your politics? NDP. hAve you ever been to A boArd meeting? Yes, I was on the board this year. whAt is your position on uvics smoking policy thAt bAns smoking inside ring roAd? I am actually currently the only student representative on the smoking committee which came up with this policy. I was only appointed after the smoking policy was implemented, as they had been meeting all summer without any student representative. I think that banning smoking within Ring Road is completely ineffective and has only resulted in more cigarette butts everywhere. Also, when its dry out, the cigarette butts in the smoking polls catch on fire, burning the filters of cigarettes which actually have plastic in them. In fact, the University is contemplating banning smoking campus wide, which I think is absolutely ridiculous because first of all its never going to work, because students, faculty, and staff are not going to walk all the way off campus property to smoke in between classes. I think that a more effective policy would be more, higher visibility designated smoking areas which are convenient, and therefore effective in concentrating smoke away from smokers. Ive requested on behalf of the student body that we have more student representatives on the smoking committee (three), but they have so far ignored this request, along with everything I have to say. whAt is victoriAs first trAnsit priority?

I feel it is my responsibility to continue the work that Ive done for students so we can continue to grow as a student society. Ariel Tseng Director of Finance Candidate

mArtlet February 20, 2012

Infrastructure. In order to solve the pass ups issue, we need to solve the congestion. Buses are now running slower than ever because there is so much congestion on the roads. Because of this, the population of professionals riding the bus is consistently decreasing (adding to more congestion), and it now takes more money to keep transit running at the same capacity as before, when buses ran faster. At the boArd level, whAt chAnges cAn be mAde to increAse the uvss visibility on cAmpus, such As voter turnout, pArticipAtion, etc? Well I think weve done a really good job this past year creating the new affordable education campaign, WheresTheFunding. Its still kind of in its baby stages right now so we have been working really hard to actually create the thing, but weve done a bunch of outreach and I think that it has been received really well by students on campus. What we need to do now is create a back-end management system of volunteers. Every year many students sign up to volunteer within the UVSS, and we dont do a good job at incorporating those volunteers into our campaigns or events system. Also, Id really like to see a SUB for the beginning of next year to bring more people physically into the SUB at the very beginning, and hopefully want to come back throughout the year. whAt do you plAn on doing After grAduAtion And whAt kind of skills do you hope to Acquire on the uvss boArd? Im not sure yet, but Id like to work for some level of government as a critical economist. Ill probably just end up drawing graphs all day to be honest (haha). As part of the UVSS board, Ive already acquired leadership skills of organizing, mediating, and taking initiative and following through on projects and responsibilities and I plan on building and growing these skills. I also want to develop my skills of surveying what people want and need and the impact that policy and initiatives have on their experience.

if you were to creAte Any course At uvic, whAt would it be And why? Critical studies in Battlestar Galactica, because it would be fraking awesome. whAt is the best coffee on cAmpus? Munchie bar for sure.