Editor’s Note: Polling for the student elections are happening throughout this week! Do refer to your student emails for polling details.

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It was a windy day. The wind blew hard. Papers were blowing everywhere. Even the candidates beautifully combed and gelled hair were a mess. Day 3 featured the policy speeches of Welfare Officers, Activities Chairperson, Publicity Officers, Wom*n Officers and Editors.

Day 3 highlights are as follow:

Welfare Officers

Lew Win Lynn & Khoo Loo Li (The Vox)

• Main focus revolves around campus security, student health and quality of student life
• Great hope of urging Monash University authorities to build a multipurpose hall
• Focus of both mental and physical health of students
• Provide a token of appreciation to the janitors and staffs that are often overlooked

Lai Kin Lok & Chow Jia Xin (The Spero)

• Believe that by helping students relax and forgetting about their stress will benefit the students in many ways
• Key is just to make the students smile
• Collaborate with SPCA to organise puppy therapy
• Carryout physical sale of second hand textbooks on campus
• Boost the rate of refill of vending machines

 

Activities Chairpersons

Low Kar Mun & Naomi Haveliwala (The Vox)

• Emphasized the importance of fostering a strong bond between students and MUSA members
• Would work closely with the publicity team to ensure that all events are publicized
• Help students develop leadership, teamwork, and communication skills through events organised
• Take into account the feedbacks on the existing events and improve in future events
• Promise that the voices of all students will be heard and taken into consideration
• Provide incentives to encourage student participation in events/activities

 

Matthew Tegjeu & Chai Eugene (The Spero)

• Be inclusive as a whole but still cater to different interest
• Hold a funfair that involves carnival events and game shows based off the coupon system
• Focus on making 2019 and memorable year for students to look back at
• Emphasised on creating an experience to allow students to embrace the Monash culture beyond textbooks and lectures

Publicity Officers

Chin Wey Shen & Areesha Ataullah (The Vox)

• More streamlined and structured communication with club presidents
• Creation of an organised scheduling system for university events
• Revolutionise the way MUSA website is used
• Emphasis on minimalism and efficiency in the way things are done

Venia Damara & Chong Kar Meng (The Spero)

• Collaborate with clubs to promote their events
• Engaging with students in promoting university events and also encouraging early registrations for Monash Annual Ball through incentives.
• Involving student feedback by promising a full apology and suggested solution for problems raised by students.
• Focus on the use of infographics the enhance MUSA’s social media accounts as well as the use of motion graphics in promotional videos.

Wom*n’s Officers

Jayasree Ananda Raj & Nor Anis Ayuni (The Vox)

• Contribute to the ‘Respect. Now. Always. (RNA)’ campaign by establishing a series of events to fight sexual harassment.
• Liaise with the Martial Arts Club in Monash to implement classes and workshops to teach students basic self-defence under the name of BASH (Battle Against Sexual Harassment)
• Offer sessions to personally meet students to address their concerns in regards to student welfare.
• Raise awareness on domestic violence by collaborating with Women’s Aid Organisation (WAO)
• Launching a speaker series involving speakers who are professionals in different fields to speak to students regarding gender discrimination and other issues they might face in the workforce
• Promote and contribute to the the fifth Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) – Gender Equality

Fizzah Rias & Charulatha Pitigala (The Spero)

• The aim is to expand ‘Inclusivity Campaign’ so that it caters to every member of the Monash community and encourage them to combat discriminative behaviours
• Further expand the ‘Respect. Now. Always. (RNA)’ campaign, because it shows immense significance as it revolves around one of their top priority – safety
• Make complaint forms more accessible and working towards ensuring anonymity in all stages of reporting
• Campaign on ‘Bar and Nightlife Safety’, aimed to ensure that individuals are able to have a fun night out while also being safe

Editors

Sim Jing Yuan. Sharifah Azlinah, Lim Chi Chien & Gabriel Pereira (The Vox)

• Focus on publishing what students want know instead of what we want to tell
• Break the barrier between local and international students with a column in MONGA
• A designated column to allow international students to share their thoughts to increase the diversity of MONGA publication
• Emphasised on the need to increase public reach
• Maximise the use of MONGA platforms

 

Celine Chua, Fatyn Afiqah, Ma Zhung Khoon & Samuel Mui Shen En (The Spero)

• Fully utilise the advancement in technology to engage with students and also to collaborate with them. To create content focusing on visuals through Vlogs, interactive videos, everyday pictures and behind the scene videos
• MONGA is about journaling, inspiring and creating awareness to share stories
• Cover the highlights of university life but also the honest realities that come along with it
• Emphasised on the need of collaboration with students

It was yet another long and tiring day, from below the stage I could feel the nerves of the each candidate as they delivered their policy speech. Questions were asked, some which left the candidates clueless and speechless. Although most of the answers from the candidates were expressed confidently, it seemed to me as though it was a reiteration of what they had mentioned in their policy speech. I am not suggesting that any of the answers are ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. Rather, this is a matter of curiosity on my part about whether the answers to the debate questions were actually answers to the question that was asked.

All in all, a good leader isn’t someone who dictates and control but the one who leads his followers to victory. The election is the time to appoint leaders who are capable of uniting the students and council in creating a productive year for everyone to enjoy. I believe that we are the ones who hold our future and we can make houses for the betterment of our University. So do VOTE!

Article by Divyah V. Thiagu

Photos by Nalau Nobel