As the only contestant running for the VP finance position in this year’s AMS elections, current Associate VP Finance Louis Retief appeared unopposed at yesterday’s debate to discuss the AMS’s upcoming fiscal year.
The debate’s first question tested Retief on what he would do if the AMS’s upcoming fee increase referendum should fail. He responded that he would see which services have the lowest usage rate and re-evaluate the businesses of the AMS before making cuts to any specific service.
“We’d have to do it on a demand basis for students,” he said. “Obviously, the last thing I want to do is cut any type of service that is valuable to any student.”
A frequent theme that came up during the debate concerned struggling AMS businesses. In order to address this issue, Retief said he plans to work with these businesses to determine what may be hindering them from performing to the best of their ability.
“I want to break down the factors that do matter down to some minute things — is it customer service that’s affecting our businesses from performing? Is it food variety?”
Retief’s platform point of teaching financial literacy to AMS members also came up. By teaching AMS members about finance, Retief hopes that the businesses of the AMS will be able to understand how to properly budget themselves, how the budget of the AMS operates and why the AMS is currently in a structural deficit.
“My experiences as a finance student will be able to help educate internally and externally so that students can better understand how the AMS budgets and how their student money is being spent so they can see the value that we’re creating for them.”
When asked what kind of alcohol he would be, Retief said he would be a Jägerbomb. “I’m young and enthusiastic coming into this position — I’ll hit you hard.”