Sixth-year integrated engineering student Kevin Heieis is running to be VP administration on a platform that prioritizes club engagement, social media outreach and sustainable financial strategies.
As co-president of the Integrated Engineering Council, his top priority was creating a sense of community among integrated engineering majors and improving collaboration with other engineering programs. Heieis aims to continue this approach in his new campaign.
“If I'm elected, I want to have an open door,” he said.
Heieis plans to apply the strategies that he has seen work in the Faculty of Applied Science to the VP administration role.
Heieis said he's seen long response times from the VP administration’s office and one of his top priorities is improving the timeline for this communication.
"I joined the committee for the funding group that allocates half a million dollars a year to engineering groups. I volunteered my time to rebuild our application process, spreadsheets," said Heieis. "I want to do the same thing with AMS systems and procedures."
By improving overall productivity and accessibility of the VP administration office, Heieis hopes to reverse the “distrust” and “poor sentiment” many students have towards the AMS.
“Having been in all these leadership positions, I know how beneficial the AMS can be,” said Heieis. “But a lot of people just don't see that because they don't have that engagement with the society.”
Heieis said he wants to devise solutions for club concerns by identifying where in the system these problems are breaking down.
“I want to specifically go to executive meetings of the clubs. I'm going to reach out to them directly to see how they operate, see what trends come across in each of these meetings,” said Heieis.
On leveraging social media, Heieis believes club members themselves should organize and be featured in promotional content rather than AMS executives.
“I think that is a great way to show students what they do and what the event is, something with passion,” said Heieis. “My overall goals are to be proactive with clubs.”
Speaking on the AMS's Sustainability Action Plan, Heieis said he wants to continue to work towards a circular economy using a data-driven approach.
This would include revitalizing the Interactive Sustainability Centre, a space Heieis said is meant to display data collected from sustainability initiatives, but "it looks like it's a storage room right now."
Following years of major deficits in the AMS, Heieis said he is not looking to commit to any "big ticket items" if elected.
"[The VP admin's] goals were the only ones to be rejected because of fiscal irresponsibility," he said. "Sp, I do want to make sure that we look at a lot of these initiatives beforehand."
Heieis also included reviewing current vendors in the Nest for financial stability in his platform, however that falls outside the scope of the VP administration duties.
Kevin Heieis is running for VP Administration alongside fellow first-time candidates Jai Sodhi and Amy Liao.
This article is part of our 2024 AMS Elections coverage. Follow us at @UbysseyNews on X (formerly Twitter) and follow our election coverage starting February 27.