Victoria Lansdown is a third-year interdisciplinary studies and Master of Management student. She is passionate about education and hopes to open a secondary school one day. If she is elected, Lansdown plans to focus on student mental health by pushing for the implementation of a fall reading break and introducing an option for students to declare academic hardship for midterms.
Describe your platform and what sets it apart from your opposition in a few sentences.
My platform is really focused on student health, development and well-being. Those are my three main categories that I’m focused on. Mental health is a big one. I want to introduce a fall reading break and really advocate for that. A lot of universities in Canada have it in response to student depression and lower levels of student health and well-being, but I think we should have it as a prevention method for students to ensure that we have a strong mental health among our student body and just making sure everybody stays positive throughout the year. I also want to introduce the option for students to declare hardship for midterms.
How have you been involved with the AMS before, and how will this help you?
I haven’t been directly involved with the AMS before, but I’ve been involved in so many different areas of campus. I think the two areas that I’ve really shined as a leader on campus is Residence Life because I’ve been in residence life for three years now and I’ve grown into the supervisor position. I have a lot of experience working on different teams, working with students and hearing student feedback about academic problems, social problems [and] well-being problems. I also work in the equity inclusion offices here and will probably keep that job next year.
What are the challenges facing this position in the upcoming year?
There are a lot of people running this year, which is great because I feel like in past years we haven’t had as great of a turnout for the election – especially in the Senate area. But I’m really happy that people are interested in the role because it’s such a huge role in the student body. I think that’s going to be a challenge setting myself apart, but my platform really shows my passion and I think that sets me apart.
Who is the most important body or person you need to collaborate with in this position, and how will you foster a relationship with them?
I think the VP Administration is a great person for me to connect with — especially on Senate — because there is so much overlap between academic policies, administrative policies, curriculum development and all those sorts of aspects of the Senate. If I am elected, those would be the committees I would be focused on and I think I would need to build a really strong relationship with that person.
What three committees would you like to sit on as a senator, and why?
I’m really interested in the academic discipline committee, and basically all the committees surrounding academics, because I do want to go into curriculum development. So anything that has to do with academic policies, or exam schedules and want constitutes exam hardship and what allows students the ability to get out of an exam — I think there are other extenuating circumstances that should be addressed that aren’t currently, such as again, health and well-being should count as something that brings up academic hardship and people should be able to extend their exam times for that reason. In summary, anything that has to do with academic policies.
Interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.