Sultana Razia is running to become one of five student senators-at-large on a platform focused on affordability, diversity and inclusion and holistic academic practices.
Razia is currently the VP academic of the Bangladeshi Students' Association and a member of the UBC Global Lounge Advisory Committee on Anti-Racism. She is also currently a first-year representative on the Science Undergraduate Society Council.
"I saw an opportunity where I could do something for my peers, and I made the experience better for everybody working on their behalf," said Razia.
As an international student, Razia has often felt underrepresented in discussions — although she did not specify which ones. She said she has heard other groups feel similar.
"Some groups sometimes would feel their needs are not [UBC's] concerns … Students that I would talk to say that they don't feel like they're [represented] enough, [such as] people with disabilities, mental health issues and international students," said Razia.
With the rising cost of education, Razia said it is important to advocate to reduce course material costs and promote more scholarship opportunities. She emphasised the need for students to be aware of aid programs and the importance of advocating for new ones.
On student engagement, Razia said she would try to increase student senators' visibility on campus "to make the position more effective."
"We could have more booths for information … where people can just drop their concerns, just write something up on a piece of paper or have an online site where people can just drop their issues," said Razia.
Razia said she values direct student input on issues and would like to encourage a participatory environment for students with informal polls on Senate issues.
"I advocate for the increased student involvement in the decision-making processes because it's about them," said Razia.
She also praised past engagement efforts, like the Student Senate Caucus website.
However, Razia would like the student senators to further advocate for clarity on the exam hardship policy as she believes the senators should be “more involved in [the] support of policies that cater to the student body.”
Speaking about anticipated difficulties, Razia said "actually passing [motions] in favour of some of the concerns or interests" would be a key challenge for student senators to overcome. She stressed "good communication and collaboration with the other stakeholders" in the Senate will be key to ensuring student senators are able to advocate for the students.
Razia highlighted the importance of building good working relationships with other Senate members to achieve her goals.
"[Having] understanding relationships with them so that we can actually pursue them to work in favour of the pressing concerns that need to be dealt with," said Razia.
During debates, Razia agreed with many of the other candidates' points, but seemed to lack specific policy knowledge.
Razia is running against incumbents Romina Hajizadeh and Kamil Kanji and fellow newcomers Kareem Hassib, Mathew Ho, Ayesha Irfan and Davey Li.
Follow us at @UbysseyNews on Twitter and follow our election coverage starting February 27. This article is part of our 2023 AMS Elections coverage.