Team White - Food trucks, shuttles and transparency
In this polemic race for Student Government, lots of proposals, accusations, and debates have been taking place. As such, it is easy to feel lost and overwhelmed when trying to assess which team is most likely to bring about meaningful change next year, change that you can believe in. That is why it is important to look at the facts, and to judge what prospective Presidents are saying independent of other considerations.
I sat down with Sofia Kurtis, a second-year BBALLB student in Segovia, and the President of Team White, to get readers the answers to important questions. Their team takes a very student-centric approach, with statements such as “your ideas are worth spreading,” and “your proposals matter.” In ‘The Big Roast’, Kurtis assured listeners that even though Team White wants to be “realistic, not idealistic” this is not mutually exclusive with their desire of granting students “their dreams.”
They received 6.2% of the vote in the opinion poll administered by the Stork, which is indicative of the performance in the first debate. Kurtis maintains that Team White is still a team to watch, and that they still have a chance at winning the elections next week. The race is anyone’s at this point, so it is paramount to listen to what Kurtis has to say.
What inspired you and your team to run for student government?
SK: The main reason is that most of us are class representatives, so we can all from first hand understand that there are many issues to be addressed, but there is little done when concerns are raised at the representative level. Hopefully, at the Student Government level, there will be more we can do about these issues.
If you could summarize your objectives for your time in office in 3 words what would they be?
SK: Teamwork. Commitment. Transparency.
Why transparency?
SK: I feel like having been campaigning for a couple of days now, something that maybe that has been common throughout all of the teams has been transparency. There have been a lot of things done that have only been shown to some people. I feel like some teams have not been transparent in their proposals, or how they actually mean to achieve their proposals.
What are some main areas of improvement in the university that you seek to tackle?
SK: Our academic aspects is a very strong focus of ours. We believe that it is necessary to standardize participation systems. it is a big issue for a lot of people because it is extremely subjective question of how one is assessed in participation.
The IR students have one language mandatory, but everyone else who wants to take a language has to pay for it, and a lot of people are not able to pay for it. Maybe we can get a very big discount on languages in general, because the university should want to incentivize as many people speaking other languages as possible. It is crucial for all degrees.
Also, the students don’t know what the current student government has accomplished, so we propose monthly feedback and updates. We also want more information and opportunities for internships. Most of the emails we receive regarding this goes straight to 3rd and 4th year students, it is extremely hard for younger students to find them. Although this will be difficult, ensure that LABS are a true transition to internships. Have the different LABS partnered to real companies.
Allow all degrees to experience a virtual class. New seminars because there are so many topics that people are interested in that do not fit into the scope of their degree. Seriously review the practicality of modules.
When you say that you will standardize attendance policy, what do you mean? Please expand on your proposal.
SK: For some professors, participation is being in class. Then, other professors say that participation is active participation. Some professors do not even know your grade and who you are until the end of the semester, and when you ask for reasoning behind the participation grade, they are not able to answer. There should be a rubric that they need to fill out.
For the internships proposal, don’t you think that LABS answers this question, or do you believe that they achieve different things?
I think that LABS try to give students real-world company experience, but I do not feel like there is a smooth transition into getting a real internship. It is already sufficiently difficult to get 1st and 2nd year students to get internships, especially for Dual students. So, partnering with companies would help 1st and 2nd year students, will not guarantee an internship, since that is extremely difficult, but at least aiding in the process.
Summarize your main policy objectives: What do you want to do, How and Why? You have already given me a lot of the ‘what,’ now specify on the ‘how’ and ‘why’
SK: I will talk about our community proposals. We want to foster University spirit, improving the feeling of ‘belonging’ at IE. It has been a recurring issue that the Madrid and Segovia campus feel like different universities, instead of just different campuses. There are 4 ways we aim to fix this:
More tournaments between campuses, have more events such as the Sports Clash. This will encourage students to get more involved
Events. Trying to involve as many clubs from both campuses as often as possible. This way club leaders get to know what is happening on both campuses. For example, bring back the Barbecue that 2017-intake students remember from Freshers week. This will be a day-time event where students are invited from both campuses. There will be one for first years, and another event for anyone that would like to join.
Classes with the same degree from both campuses. This way we increase socialization.
The Shuttle. That goes to Madrid on Friday and returns to Segovia on Sunday. This way students can move more easily, and I know that it is complicated, but I also know that Renfe is going to start having a discount on train tickets for IE students. So, the Shuttle is very highly demanded, so it will also take place inside Segovia. This is for convenience.
We also want to have a food truck that gives other alternatives to cafeteria food. For Segovia, we also want to have further spaces for IE students to simply chill out. There is no place to go if you have one hour to kill between classes. Also, we want to have a phone app that streamlines all of the communication and events occurring for students. Everything in one place.
How will you ensure that the team (both in Madrid and Segovia) are on the same page when it comes to objectives and initiatives?
SK: We just have to make sure that we are all active on the chat that connects us, while remaining open to new ideas to ensure that we are all on the same page. We will also make sure that all our individual efforts will translate into the progress of our group.
You have mentioned that a lot of you are very close. How will you ensure that your relationship remains professional and that the closeness doesn’t interfere with your goals?
Although some of us in the team are friends, we still have our own individual ideas and opinions, which obviously cause some disagreement eventually. This is normal, we do not all have the same opinion. But, we just have to make sure that we don’t let friendship influence us in our group. This is a professional group, not a friends one.
Before we finish the interview, do you have a final comment? Maybe something that these questions failed to ask that you feel is important for the voters to know.
SK: It is very important that when a proposal is given the ‘how-to’ is addressed. We all wish that we could have so many things on campus, and it is easy to claim that a team will fix these. But, they are simply not feasible. For example, the parking issue has been extremely controversial. So many teams are saying that they will make a parking, when Juan Barrio has specifically said that this is impossible, they will not go back on the construction taking place. I think people need to be aware of this, and think of the proposals that every team is giving, and how they plan to achieve this. Having to be in contact with the Mayor of Segovia is not going to be successful.