1564 votes cast out of 4330 SGPS members

My name is Jeremy Ambraska, I am a second-year law student and I am running to be your SGPS President. I want to be your SGPS President because I want to enhance the experience for graduate and professional students outside of the classroom and ensure that we build on the world-class community here in Kingston and at Queen’s.

As President, my focus would be: 1. Strengthening the SGPS community 2. Promoting holistic health and wellness for graduate students and 3. Increasing academic and career support for graduate students.

1. Strengthening the SGPS community
   I believe that orientation style events should not be limited to just the beginning of school. As President, I would promote more interfaculty social and networking events throughout the year. I would champion the creation of an interfaculty intermural sporting and activity tournament, known as the Grad Games.
2. Promoting holistic health and wellness for graduate students
   I know how stressful graduate studies can be and I believe we can do better. As President, I would promote a holistic strategy for mental health that informs grad students about mental health resources on campus, but also focuses on connecting students to each other to help foster informal support networks.
3. Increasing academic and career support for graduate students.
   As graduate and professional students, I know employment is top of mind. As President, I would lead the creation of an SGPS alumni professional network to connect current students to Queen’s alumni already working in their industry or field.

My vision for the SGPS is a valued, informed, and integrated membership.

Two main objectives: Fiscal Transparency and greater integration between professional and graduate students.

Transparency for finances.
As President, I will work to ensure further steps are taken to inform our members of opt-out fees.
The existing fees in place further a plethora of fantastic projects.
Keeping students informed of these fees should not dissuade them from continuing to contribute their fees to those projects.
The decision to opt-out of the optional fees is respected.
During my undergrad at Queen’s, I worked as staff at the ARC, as coordinator for the Queen’s Blood Team, and also have two years of experience as staff with the Residence Society. I helped students across faculties integrate into campus life, and responded to their concerns or queries. Now as a member of the SGPS, I want to respond to your concerns and queries and represent you as your President.

As President of the SGPS, my goal is further integration across the diverse professional and graduate programs at Queen’s. As a member of Education I see the importance of social networking between our faculties to best utilize SGPS membership. Members of the SGPS are in a unique situation with such excellent faculties in such close proximity to each other that greater interaction between the faculties will only work to benefit the SGPS community as a whole.

Redevelopment of the JDUC is a major point of discussion affecting the SGPS. The JDUC is managed by a tri-party agreement between the University, the AMS, and the SGPS. As President, I will work to ensure the SGPS remains an integral member of this partnership -graduate and professional students should be equally represented on campus, not only undergraduate interests.

Hello Queens Grad students! My name is Cameron and I am running to be your next Vice-President Campaigns and Community Affairs. Since moving to Canada, I have been heavily involved in community engagement, especially in the education/non-profit sector.

During my undergraduate at the University of Toronto, I was the Vice-President Operations at the University of Toronto Students’ Union. I was able to implement policies that directly improved the lives of the student community as well as organized events such as Orientation Week, Homecoming and Frost Week. My proudest accomplishment was the success of the international students’ right campaign, which included lobbying the university administration and the provincial government to permit international students to participate in the university’s governance structure. This victory amended the University of Toronto Act in 2015, allowing international students to sit on the University of Toronto’s Governing Council and the opportunity to be involved in the university-level policies.

After graduation I was also the Clubs Coordinator for the Student Association of George Brown College. I was responsible for all matters pertaining to Student Life Clubs Program, successfully tripling the number of clubs from 25 to 75 within one academic year. I have also volunteered extensively within the Kingston community including Social Committees, Public Administration Representative for SGPS, Policy Committee for SGPS, canvassed for Mary Rita Holland’s City Councilor campaign and am a member of the Planning Advisory Working Group for the City of Kingston.

Community engagement is my passion and I hope to bring that passion and experience to Queen’s. I hope together we can implement campaigns to promote mental health on campus, host more inclusive events, on and off campus, and look into increasing research funding through grants at the SGPS and within the university. Vote for experience and passion – vote for Cameron!

Abel is a second-year law student in the combined Juris Doctor & Master of Public Administration program. As someone who has community building on the forefront of his mind, Abel has spent the last six years serving students in both a volunteer and a professional capacity. Hoping to combine his extensive leadership experience working with students, academic background in public administration, and passion for his Queen’s community, Abel wishes to once again deliver on tangible promises for the upcoming 2019-20 SGPS term.

As the current Vice President Finance & Services, Abel delivered on his promise to reduce the health plan fees last year. This translates to over $20 in savings to every graduate and professional student. Abel has also raised the much-needed Emergency Bursary and the heavily-utilized Department Student Council grant to $10,000 each. In addition to bringing real and tangible value to students, Abel’s experience managing budgets and student fees has kept the books in the green despite the SGPS seeing an unanticipated six-figure reduction in its collected monies last year. The society is currently on track to report a healthy surplus this year.

As a previous Health and Dental Plan administrator for a 24,500-member policy, Abel brings in a wealth of knowledge in best practices and negotiating with health plan providers. This is more important than ever given the political uncertainty of OHIP+ remaining a primary payer for prescription drugs in the province. Having already reduced the plan cost to students last year, Abel promises to bring in a new health plan design which will ensure maximum value-transfer to students that need it the most.

When re-elected, Abel’s experience will usher in another year of fiscal responsibility, transparency and efficiency.

“I believe that the SGPS must work towards sustainable and positive change through the pillars of collaboration, community, and transparency.”

Best Regards,
Abel Hazon

My name is Leo Erlikhman, and I am running for re-election for the position of Vice-President Graduate for the 2019-2020 school year.  Over the past 8 months I have had the pleasure of serving the membership.  My previous platform centered around building a closer relationship with the university’s administration and improving the overall graduate student experience.

I would like to continue my work to provide more visible and accessible services to graduate students at Queen’s.  My platform for this year will be centred around issues that have been brought up this year by members of our community. If re-elected I will do my best to ensure that there will be a continued administrative focus to support Graduate students’ well-being on campus.  I will do so by:

• Finalizing and completing the Graduate Peer Support Center, SGPS members will have their own peer-to-peer mental health service on campus.
• Utilizing the increased student advisor team to do more advocacy on campus.
• Ensuring the continuation of the Graduate student wellness survey, we can create evidence-based policies and procedures that will improve the lives of our members.
• Expanding professional skills and experiential learning opportunities.
• Continued work to improve supervisory relationships and an increased promotion of the new student-supervisor agreement.

I look forward to having the opportunity to meet you over the campaign period and encourage those looking for more information to check out my platform.

My name is Ryan Adlem and I am a student in the Faculty of Law at Queen’s University. I am running for the position of VP Professional of the SGPS with the following three goals:

1. Increase Awareness of SGPS Services Within Professional Programs
   It is possible for one to spend their entire professional degree at Queen’s without knowing what the SGPS does. If elected VP Professional, I would begin an informational campaign to advertise the services the SGPS offers—such as its health & dental plan and grants & bursaries. This can be accomplished by working to enhance the social media presence of the SGPS.
2. Increase Interaction Between Professional Faculties
   There is little interaction between members of the various professional faculties. For example, law students tend to primarily interact with other law students while students in the Faculty of Education are geographically isolated on another part of campus. I would work with the VP Community to increase the number and quality of social events between members of the professional programs.
3. Enhance Career Week
   Career week should focus on helping professional students develop the practical skills they need to excel after graduation. Workshops on job interviews, cover letter & resume development, and personal branding are critical.

Student Government Experience:
During undergraduate studies at UBC, I was President of the Graduating Class Council and an executive in the Political Science Students’ Association. Additionally, I was a councillor in the Arts Undergraduate Society and a member of its Finance Committee. At Queen’s, I am currently a Law Students’ Society Special Representative for the Restructuring Initiative.

Hello everyone! My name is Courtney Bannerman and I’m hoping to be elected as your next Graduate Student Senator. The Graduate Student Senator plays an important role in making sure the Queen’s graduate student community is having their voice heard on the Queen’s Senate. I believe I would make a good representative as in September I was elected as the field representative for the Microbes, Immunity, and Inflammation program in the Department of Biomedical and Molecular Sciences. I have also held other leadership positions on the Queen’s Fencing Team and Queen’s Women in Science and Engineering (Queen’s WiSE). Should I be elected to this position I hope to ensure proper communication and transparency between the Queen’s Senate and the graduate students. My door (and inbox) will always be open for any questions or concerns you might have or that you would like communicated to the Senate.

Advocate for the interests of the 4,000 graduate and professional students to the university administration and governing bodies (Senate and Board of Trustees). Oversee the Society’s short and long-term strategic planning. A key project next year will be the $60M redevelopment of the John Deutsch University Centre.

Salary: $15,500

Oversee the four Commissioners, who support the student body through event planning and committee-level advocacy. The VP Community, along with the President, represents the SGPS to the Canadian Federation of Students.

Salary: $12,000

It is up to the VP Finance to keep the SGPS out of the red. Annual budgeting, investment oversight, and bursary/grant distribution are the key responsibilities.

Salary: $12,000

Work collaboratively with the School of Graduate Studies to address issues affecting graduate students. The VP Graduate serves on a range of committees and oversees the SGPS Student Advisor Program. Only graduate students are eligible for this role.

Salary: $12,000

Work collaboratively with the Law Students’ Society, Education Student Society and other stakeholders to address issues affecting professional students. The VP Professional sits on committees and facilitates SGPS Careers Week. Only professional students are eligible for this role.

Salary: $12,000

Serves as the representative for all Graduate Students on Queen’s University Senate. Senate determines all matters of an academic character that affect the University as a whole, and is concerned with all matters that affect the general welfare of the University and its constituents.