Ameera Karim is a third-year Industrial Relations, Practical French, and Sociology student and one of four candidates running for Vice-President Student Life.
If elected, Karim hopes to “bridge the gap between the UTSU and student [body] by making student life more visible” and promoting awareness toward student resources and ongoing programs and initiatives. She also wants to implement more programming for opportunities to gain tangible skills, such as for tax filing and renting, with a focus on specific student groups, such as international students.
Karim cited her involvement as a Vice-President on the Bangladeshi Students’ Association and a Residence Don at New College as relevant experience for the role. In these positions, she handled clubs funding, implemented programming, and worked directly with students.
In regards to orientation, Karim wants to ensure that clubs committees and the UTSU can work together effectively. She wants to further promote events such as Clubs Carnival, saying that she felt as if it was a “filler event” and stressing its importance in fostering student involvement.
“Clubs Carnival actually has the opportunity to really shape your student life and help you reach your potential,” she said.
When asked about how she would handle the Student Choice Initiative — the provincial government’s mandate for an opt-out option for certain student fees starting September — Karim asked if that referred to “how some people think that certain clubs get more funding than others and other unfair advantages like that?”
“I think I would handle it in a situation by making sure that people are aware of where the money is going. So just making sure that people know what types of clubs are being funded, just being very open about what types of clubs there are on campus,” she said. “People always say that there are 350+ clubs on campus, but it’s not really advertised effectively.”
