- What is your full name, semester, hometown, and the position you are running for?
My name is Tyche van der Wielen, I am a fourth semester and I grew up in Raamsdonksveer. I am running for the position of Roggeveenhof Campus Elder.
2. What is it that you feel you can contribute to HAC?
I think I can be a good Campus Elder as I am really involved in the events happening at Roggeveen. The HAC will benefit from having me as a member, because they need a Campus Elder, and I am willing to put in a lot of work into improving everyone’s experience of living in Roggeveen.
3. What issues do you consider to be the most pressing for Jacob Roggeveenhof?
The issues I want to address as Campus Elder for Roggeveenhof are the safety, the bike parking, and the common rooms.
Due to many incidents with youths choosing our campus location as their hangout spot, we have unfortunately been dealing with them entering the building and/or causing damage. Their behavior needs to be acted upon, so a set of security cameras would be great.
More spots to park our bikes outside are also needed, there is limited space, so a lot of bikes end up being parked on the grass. Some extra hoops will not be not an unnecessary luxury.
Lastly, the common rooms cannot currently be used due to a lack of breathable air, the process of solving this problem has been started but a solution is not yet there.
4. Please outline a few ideas/initiatives you would like to implement if elected.
As the campus elder of Roggeveen, I think it would be fun if we could get to know each other better. With each other, I mean all the students living in Roggeveen. Apart from the people in my hallway, I do not know many of my neighbors here, and I think that I am not the only one. It would be fun if an event like the Tower of Power that Jesse organized in Koestraat could take place in Roggeveen, too.
For the entire campus I think we can make the moving out- and in- process easier. The communication between graduates and new students should be improved so they can make deals regarding furniture. While on the topic of furniture, I think the furniture fund can be promoted more. These are just a few things to easily improve our housing experience.
5. Describe your dream house!
You ask me to describe my dream house, but I would like to keep it a little realistic. I have no clue about where I will end up after UCR. I could, of course, dream of a huge mansion. However, I do not think I will need all that space, let alone have the time or motivation to keep it all clean. Lately I have been intrigued by the concept of tiny houses or even tiny apartments. People live comfortably with as little space as possible there. It really amazes me what creative solutions they come up with in order to puzzle all their needs into a small room. It is a bit similar to our student rooms. Even though I would not mind having an extra room, I also definitely would not mind living in a small space in the future, too. Especially not if this would allow me to live in a really cool location, for instance.
- What is your full name, semester, hometown, and the position you are running for?
My name is Alexandra Cole, I’m in my 4th semester, I’m from Bridgetown Barbados, and I’m running for Internal officer and the UCR Council.
2. What is it that you feel you can contribute to the AAC?
I feel I am able to contribute my experience to the board. I have been engaged in tasks concerning UCR management and I am able to navigate through their plans. I have seen what they want to do, and I have seen them overshoot and not continue. I can contribute the experience of understanding this and assuring they are more realistic.
3. What issues do you consider to be the most pressing for the AAC?
I think the communication from UCR to the students is the most pressing issue. I think there is hardly any communication and I would like to fix this.
4. Please outline a few ideas/initiatives you would like to implement if elected.
I would like to see the continuation of the plans to renovate the study lounge, I would like to initiate new communication platforms, I would like to have a review of unnecessary requirement courses, and I would like have more meetings about student complaints.
5. What is it that you like to do outside of the classroom?
Any sport involving a board or a ball.
- What is your full name, semester, hometown, and the position you are running for?
I’m Nena Kos and I am from Breda, in the South of the Netherlands. I’m a fourth semester now and my major is Law and Psychology and I am running for Rasa Committee Affairs Officer.
2. What is it that you feel you can contribute to RASA?
I feel like I could contribute a lot, based on my experience and attitude towards this community, because I really want to increase our school spirit. This past year specifically, I have been the basketball coordinator and the secretary of SportsCo. Being in SportsCo taught me a lot, also as it is sort of a mid-way board between Rasa and the Coordinators of the Sports. Therefore, I know how to manage smaller ‘societies’ and communicate with them, but also how to communicate with Rasa and see what they can do for Committees. Being a basketball coordinator taught me how I could install enthusiasm within a team, as my co-coordinator and I made sure to do team bonding and promote early and well for UCSRN. This worked, as we have a close, cohesive team. But most importantly, I really enjoyed doing both things and therefore I want to do more.
3. What issues do you consider to be the most pressing for RASA?
I think that the main issue for the new board is increasing the UCR spirit displayed by UCR students. I think that not many people will deny that there is some enthusiasm missing in our community. Personally, I saw this with SportsCo as we tried to promote UCSRN, but still we ended up with few sign ups. But I feel like this is a general feeling that many students have. Furthermore, I think the communication between Rasa and the societies could be better, as now I do not think many societies use the help that Rasa could offer. These issues are not something that can be 100% solved in one board year, as the current board has been working hard on this as well, but I really want to do what I can to help this along in the next year.
4. Please outline a few ideas/initiatives you would like to implement if elected.
Firstly, I want to improve communication between societies and Rasa. There is a Society Handbook to which societies have access. However, this book has not been edited since 2015 and is quite long. I would like to update the information, really talk about it with my societies, and perhaps make a summary to make it more accessible. Secondly, I want to increase enthusiasm, and I plan to do this by involving societies more in Introweek and UCSRN. I would like to make the committee market for instance, bigger, by including a more interactive and fun approach. For example, with some relevant games by the societies. Perhaps we can extend the market to a more ‘carnival’ atmosphere. For UCSRN, for the relevant societies, I will meet with them to bring up UCSRN early in the Spring semester, to spike interest and really talk them through it and get them excited.
5. What is your favorite icebreaker activity?
One activity that I really enjoyed in my Introweek was during the beach walk when they tied our family’s wrists together to make a circle, and we had to walk and tell our most embarrassing stories (we all met two days before). Each tie was cut loose if we told a Godparent one of the stories.
