My speech at all-candidates debate (On-Campus)
GSS Elections information and voting at: gss.ubc.ca/elections
Voting period: March 9 (12:00am) – March 13 (5:00pm)
Please VOTE me for the VP-University and Academic Affairs!
Hi, I’m PK and having the opportunity to express my deep gratitude to Ms. Fulton. Those who don’t know who this Fulton is, like me before 1-day; her full name is Ruth Vivian Fulton, the very first person who got awarded graduate degree in Arts and Science from UBC back in 1919 (almost 100 years back from now!). OK, after that it’s a history that is still labelling today; currently UBC holds very fine over 10,000 graduate students under her umbrella!
Among these large community, I can tell you about my story. I enjoy my graduate life, while research and studying are a major part of my daily routine, but sports and recreation facilities available at UBC make my life enjoyable. I firmly believe that’s true or I’d say should be true for you too!
Therefore, to pave the way our graduate life most enjoyable and memorable at UBC, I’m fully aware of the importance of the works that are needed for the University and Academic Affairs position, where I’m potential to serving in!
In this wind, basically I’m focusing on an equilateral triangle-ABC, where arm A represents students’ advocacy, B recognizes scholarship opportunities and last but not least C represents liaison between UBC faculties and student service. Let me further decorate my triangle-ABC.
Okey!
Item A: Advocacy.
I understand how bitter and stressful life it’d be if any of us gets bad marriage with our supervisor and/or having financial difficulties. Followed by elected, I’ll ensure to resolve your hard academic life in terms of supervisor relationships and/or emergency financial needs as quickly as possible seamlessly and of-course with great confidentiality.
Here, I have a particular personal agenda. In fact I found to ice-breaking my hard time with a solver body, for example, say with GSS executive, communication process is not that much smooth. It involves, goggling the contact address, open your email server, writing and then send. I found that involves not an easy-task while you are having a hard time. So, I’ll pave the ice-breaking process by launching our first-ever-smart-phone-app solely for UBC-GSS to reach you better seamlessly.
Now!
Let’s move to Arm B: Scholarship and research opportunities.
UBC is the hub of tons of scholarship opportunities for the graduate students. But the fact is scholarships and awards- all are competitive business. In light of that, I’ll concentrate on arranging more workshops to facilitate information available to you and make you compete efficiently.
Here I have also an agenda to add. I’d patronize you to be an independent researcher. Alongside your mainstream work with your supervisor, if you’d like to plant more research trees in your spare time either with your peers or with undergraduate students; I’d love to bring this facility available to you.
Okey-dokey!
Last but not the least- Arm C: Connections.
UBC has more than 100 labs where leading advance researches are going on various topics. But to me, when I say this, it makes me feel nothing but a fi gurative number. Followed by elected, I envision arranging home-and-away lab tours to facilitate for our very own graduate students to see in person what’s going on tissue culture, brain research, tall building made out weak material- wood, or social-economic-behavioural change due to research parameters and so on. All you can get hands-on, eyes-open experience to get engaged with each other better.
On the other hand, I’ll maintain the smooth flow of any student service concerns to the respective university (UBC) or provincial (Alliance of BC Student Society) or federal (Canadian Alliance of Student Association) administrative bodies with high priority.
Yep! That’s it.
My experience at UBC as a Social Coordinator (Forestry Graduate Student Association), Assistant VP- Communications (Interdisciplinary Graduate Student Network) and UBC TA union department representative has taught me that listening the needs and concerns on everyone’s mind carefully and endeavouring in a manner that ensures a fair and professional consideration of the task at hand is crucial to the success of the team.
Thank you.
PK Moniruzzaman
