Reed Eaglesham is a third-year international economics student running for a position as student senator. He currently works as a residence advisor in Totem Park and is a student ambassador, giving potential students and their families tours of campus. If elected, Reed plans to make the senate a more transparent body and wants to increase student engagement with and awareness of the senate.
Describe your platform and what sets it apart from your opposition in a few sentences.
When I’ve said I’m running, people don’t know what it is on top of the fact that people don’t know what they do. So my main thing is to be able to make it as transparent of a body as possible on campus and to make it so that students know what the senate does so they can have their voice heard while I represent them. What sets me apart from the opposition [is that], in all honesty, I’m just someone who’s new to the game. I know there’s people who have been in the AMS for a while and I’m sure they’ll have a wealth of experience with that, but I think having an outside viewpoint is important in a lot of these things and getting kind of fresh people. That’s why we have elections — to be able to get fresh people into it.
How have you been involved with the AMS before, and how will this help you?
A lot of my involvement has been outside of the AMS. I’d say ... most of my time with the AMS has been kind of just the crossing of paths just with club things. My main involvements are [that] I’m a residence advisor, I’m a student ambassador … I am also part of the IEBA — it’s kind of a business and econ team. I also was the videographer for faculty cup. I do honestly have quite an outside perspective. So when it comes to my involvement, [it is] really quite outside the AMS and I decided that it’s about time that I — now that I’ve seen all these other aspects of campus — be able to see what it’s like to be in the decision making area.
What are the challenges facing this position in the upcoming year?
My goal is to get people to know what senate is and that is never really the easiest thing to figure out how best to get that out, as well as to figure out a platform that would help students have their voices heard. I think the main thing that I’m going to try starting with is making an infograph or something where it’s accessible and easy to follow and understand the layout of the AMS and what role the senate plays specifically and from that, trying to find whatever best medium would work for students to have their voices heard. I think those are the main challenges and that’s really what I’m looking forward towards solving.
Who do you think is the most important body or person that you will have to collaborate with as a senator, and how do you plan to achieve that?
I feel like the main people I’m going to be partnering with outside of the senate is going to be a lot of the AMS members — definitely the president as well because they’re a perfect face for UBC and I think that they have a lot of sway in what students are looking for [and] what gets heard. I’d say that as well as probably with the AMS marketing team. As I’ve said a number of times, my main goal is to get what senate is out there.
What three committees would you like to sit on as a senator, and why?
In all honesty, I don’t. It’s something that, right now, I’m focused specifically on the main role that I want to play and [if I’m elected], then I’d focus on that. So I think right now I’m just kind of a one-track mind.
Interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
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