By Peter Williamson
Can you introduce yourself?
My name is Fenna, I am a fourth semester student and I am majoring in Social Sciences, primarily in politics and law. I am in TheatRa, and I like music.
Could you tell us what are you running for?
I am running for RASA Chair.
Why this position?
When I learnt about the fact that you could run for positions like this, I knew this was something I would be interested in. Primarily because I think that at the time, and I still think so now, the idea of being in the board and structuring things that other people can enjoy really appeals to me, in this case then our student community and all the societies that I really enjoy going to with the many enjoyable activities that they organize. So I knew already back then that I really wanted to be involved in a different way; over the course of this year I realized that I liked the position of chair the most, and that I consider myself the most suited for that one.
And why do you think you are suitable?
I think I am a team player, that is the biggest part for me; I like structuring the discussion instead of only participating, and I am level-headed and organized, as well as creative. I always try to put things in context and out of context, just to see how certain situations can be dealt with differently by different people. All this mixed together made me consider that this job is the best suited for me.
Could you explain to the readers how you want to create a ‘more’ visible board?
I think what is mostly interesting is that in previous years, we have always had this RASA office that was in Eleanor, but it was sort of ‘hidden away’ in a cupboard; but now we have this great beautiful new RASA office in Elliott, which is really all space – only windows.
I think that this should really reflect how a RASA board should function. I mean it is not just here to just sit around and type, but to be here for the community and for you, and in that respect, a visible board would be a board that is engaged, one that not only looks from a distance, and also goes to all the events.
Next to that there is a bunch of documents that we have within RASA: there is the policy manual, there are the articles of association, and so forth, but I think not a lot of people read them, especially the policy manual – there are some pretty important things in there.
For instance, the thing that we have with the food clause that we had to add in, that was not in the policy manual, but everybody just assumed that it was . So I really want to try and find a way to make them more accessible – not radically rewriting them or anything – but just really trying to make a summary that everybody can read and that we can hang up somewhere, or that we distribute in Elliott.
I feel like sometimes the gap between the community and RASA is still way too big and people are intimidated to go to RASA, or intimidated to ask something; in my own beginning at TheatRa we were sort of struggling with the question “what can we ask from them, what can we not ask from them?” So what needs to be addressed is both closing the gap between the members and the board, but also between the societies and the board.
And you also mentioned you want a more open community, how would you advocate that?
As we are opening the Sports Centre next year, by open community I really mean that RASA and UCR in Middelburg need to be aware of UCR’s position as a local institution: I think that contact with locals is something we should advocate, and keep that in mind for a longer time. As we have good ties to Middelburg, we can also incorporate this into the sports centre – it is a really big venue with a running track and everything, and I would really like to explore together with the people who are involved with the sports center how we can use that for creating more contact with Middelburgers.
So, opening up the bubble?
Yeah, maybe a little bit, and of course it also has to come from the Middelburgers – I do not know how they would respond to it– but from talking to them, since I work in Middelburg with people that never went to UCR, I get the feeling like there are still a lot of opportunities and I would like to explore those. For example, I often hear my colleagues say things such as: “sometimes we have students come in and then we have nice talks; they speak english, and so we can practise”, which suggests something is there that we can build on.
For your last point, what do you mean by ‘critical reflection’?
That is what I find most important, actually. I started in Theatra last semester, and we had no documentation for anything, while we have been organising plays for 10 years, but there is no reflection – none. This goes for instance for the cooperation between Theatra and CameRA; CameRa’s been filming the spring play for at least 3 years – no documentation. No “Hey, we noticed this during the play, maybe you should not do that next year” or maybe “you should do that next year!”. I feel like we have been slacking in trying to accomodate these kinds of reflections, so what I really will try to explore with the CAO and all the involved societies is standardized reflection.
Perhaps just a form, or some sort of forum on the websites, so that RASA members can also be involved when they for instance saw the play and say “well, you need to change this because this was weird”. It would be something that societies can just take that and put in their boardbooks for instance or in their archives, so that you can see over the years if the society is improving, or not. This was really obvious for me in Theatra, but also for new societies I think that its very valuabe if they have some sort of way to assess what they did in cooperation with their CAOs and their members.
Furthermore, I would also like to institute more opportunities for students to voice their opinions on very specific issues. As emotions can sometimes run high at GA’s, with many opinions flying around, I would like to organise more ’round-table’ talks with students. RASA has already been doing something similar in the lunchbreak sessions, and I would like to members to have an opportunity to express their opinions on one particular issue such as course requirements, which are also on the UCR council agenda. This would allow us to be more prepared for the GAs. Therefore, I am thinking of letting this take the shape of ‘think-tanks’ or round-tables, which can engage people who do not usually go to GA’s or do not speak up there since it can indeed be somewhat intimidating for some; these meetings would then be pre-GA’s, of sorts.
Do yo have anything else you want to say to the readers?
Thanks for reading and I hope you come to the GA and vote for me!
Peter Williamson, Class of 2015, is a Politics & Sociology Major from Hamburg, Germany.
