Who the hell am I voting for? – Student Affairs

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This week, the Baron sent out a set of questions to the three first and second year students running for vice president student affairs in this year’s Students’ Representative Council election.

The successful candidate will serve on the Students Representative Council executive for the next academic year and be responsible for planning orientation week, looking after clubs on campus, among other things.

The student affairs position is a paid, part-time position for the 2016/17 academic year.

All three candidates vying for the spot answered our questions concerning their run for vice president student affairs. Names are listed in reverse alphabetical order.


Kirstin Price
2nd year, Political Science

Best part of UNB Saint John: The best part of UNB Saint John would be the connections I’ve gained, the experiences I’ve had, and how easy it is to get involved within this campus. Overall Saint John is beautiful and so is this campus, which was the main reason for me choosing UNB Saint John.

Worst part of UNB Saint John: The lack of enthusiasm and involvement of student life on campus. The best part about university is meeting new people, but with the lack of enthusiasm and involvement it’s hard to gain connections with other students on campus or even get involved. Another reason would be the lack of knowledge that students have about what’s happening on campus. If more students knew about the events that happen, there would be a larger turnout.

Why are you running? I’m running for VP Student Affairs because I love being involved, the more involved I am the more I learn and gain experiences. I also love working with clubs and societies, for the past year I’ve been apart of 2 clubs on campus and helped out with other clubs and societies around campus, just to help out, meet new people, and have fun. I’m running so I can put all my effort into making clubs and societies more known to the students around campus.

What would your top three goals as vice president student affairs be?

  1. I want to make the clubs and societies on campus more known to students and faculty–most students or faculty that aren’t involved with clubs and societies themselves, or are a part of the SRC, don’t know about them.
  2. I want to make UNB Saint John a vibrant and more welcoming place.
  3. I want to make orientation more inviting by including events that integrate new students to the campus.

In your opinion, what is the biggest challenge facing the SRC as a whole?  Getting more students and faculty involved with events. The lack of knowledge that students have toward SRC hosted events is the reason they have a poor turnout.

In your opinion, what is the biggest challenge facing Kanye West? Kanye West is popular and everyone knows him.

How are the two similar? Kanye West and I are similar because we both have grand visions, no fear to execute on those visions, and like to get shit done in a timely fashion.


Benjamin Manzer

1st year, Business Administration

Best part of UNB Saint John: The people

Worst part of UNB Saint John: Marketing and Advertising

Why are you running? I am running for the position of Student Affairs because I have a passion and spirit to make UNB an even better place for the student body, and give students a larger voice than they have so they can see things happen that they all desire.

Also, to try and improve the marketing and advertising done at UNB because I am continuously hearing people say that they don’t know when things are happening or even that an event is occurring. In direct relation to the clubs and societies, I would like to see them promoted more than what they are because they are a great opportunity which are not seen as such.

What would your top three goals as vice president student affairs be?

  1. Increase marketing; specifically to find a better marketing strategy to implement and then use it to promote many things such as the UNB clubs and societies that are offered.
  2. Increase popularity of the campus.
  3. Make student opinion number one and act on what the student body as a whole would want.

In your opinion, what is the biggest challenge facing the SRC as a whole? The biggest challenge facing the SRC in my opinion is the marketing strategy. With better marketing, many problems would be solved, such as low turnout to events and people not even knowing who is on council. Just one of many benefits to better marketing would be an increase in revenue (more people buy more tickets to events generating more profit).

In your opinion, what is the biggest challenge facing Kanye West? His 52 million dollars of debt. lol.

How are the two similar? They are not very similar because Kanye is a rapper in debt from failed business ventures and [the SRC] just needs to work on its marketing strategy. I guess you could say that the only similar thing about the two is to work on marketing?


Valerie Ann Landry

1st year, Bachelor of Arts

Best part of UNB Saint John: The interesting courses and cultural diversity that you are not exposed to in other schools.

Worst part of UNB Saint John: Not all the students are motivated to participate in, and attend school events and guest lectures (get the most out of their student life).

Why are you running? I have enjoyed my first year at UNB, and would like to help others enjoy their university experience. As well as gain experience in a role of responsibility.

What would your top three goals as vice president student affairs be?

  1. Make everyone aware of clubs and activities on campus, hopefully motivate them to join, and become a part of our community.
  2. Improve upon any concerns or issues faced in the previous years.
  3. Successfully and actively do any paperwork or management required of me.

In your opinion, what is the biggest challenge facing the SRC? Making sure the representatives are able to successfully communicate their ideas, and one division of the council does not take precedence over another.

In your opinion, what is the biggest challenge facing Kanye West? His public reputation is marred by his inability to get out of his own way. One moment he is angry, the next he is boasting.

How are the two similar? Both are attempting to accommodate multiple personalities. Only one seems to be succeeding (and it is not Kanye). 😛


It appears that Landry, Manzer, and Price all agree on one thing: raising awareness for campus events, clubs, and societies.

The three students running for VP Student Affairs, while each having separate approaches toward the position, seem to all agree that UNB Saint John could benefit from a more connected campus that listens to student concerns and focuses on keeping students aware of the goings-on around campus and within the SRC.

Next week UNB Saint John students will decide who they want to hire to fill the role next year.

Voting days are from March 22 to the 25, and you can hear all the candidates for executive positions speak and field questions today 4:30pm in the Whitebone lounge. The event will also be streamed online, via The Baron’s YouTube page.

Emily is in her fourth year of Political Science. She loves studying and academics which follows into her research work. She's a stern black coffee drinker and is a proud Acadienne. When she's not working or doing school work, you can find Emily listening to 70s music on vinyl and watching Parks and Recreation. If you ask her about parliamentary institutions, she won't stop talking.