By Eden van der Moere
In the second round for AAC Chair, Geert Buis is running. In-between THEATRA rehearsals, I meet with Geert, who is originally from Oud-Beijerland, to talk about his plans for the AAC.
Why are you running for this position?
I’m running for AAC Chair, because I am really interested in education. I was interested already in high school, when I wrote a paper about what the school could improve on. I often see a lot of things that could be improved. Especially at UCR, which is supposed to be a school that’s been thought about a lot. It’s actually a new concept, so I think we should perfect it as much as we can. I think it could do a lot to improve things.
What changes or improvements would you like to make?
Of course. I know AAC is not just a think-tank, you also have your daily stuff, problems that come up and talking to people. But one of the changes that I would like to make, is to reduce the amount of prerequisites. A lot of people are complaining about it. For example, the language requirement. If you speak three languages, then you should not be required to take a fourth language course. The idea behind the language requirement is really good, to expand your view and to think in a different way. But if you already speak a third language and you have a certificate that you got outside of UCR, that says “I have a learned a third language and I am capable of speaking it”, then you shouldn’t have to do more language courses. The same goes for other courses, such as academic writing and other track-specific prerequisites.
Why should people vote for you?
When you have to make all these decisions as the AAC Chair on a daily basis, you want that everything is handled by someone who represents the UCR population and I think I know what the students of UCR want. And I think I can apply that knowledge into the decisions that I make as AAC Chair.
Any last words?
I have a quote, one second… The only reason not to vote for me, is because you never want anyone else.
Eden van der Moere, Class of 2017, is a Literature & Linguistics major from Goes, The Netherlands.
