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The Sputnik sat down to chat with the Brantford candidates running for the Students’ Union Board of Directors to chat about their plans and why they’re running.

Nick DeSumma

I am running for the Chair of the board. This is my third year running for the board because I have loved it so much and it has been a great experience. Especially since I am running for chair this year, it’s kind of my way of giving back to the Students’ Union for all it has given to me…  I just want to help better the Students’ Union and give as much as I can to them.

I am a third year concurrent and human rights student. I have been on the Board of Directors since my second year, and I am Vice Chair of the board this year. I have been a general volunteer, director of communications and marketing executive for Nipissing Student Union ambassadors. I’ve been an icebreaker and a director on the Brantford Residence council. I’ve been all over the place.

I just loved politics coming into university and being in the Concurrent Education program, there is not much of a spot or place for that, so when I found out about the elections, I wanted to be a volunteer for the elections but since it wasn’t so big for the Branford campus in my first year, I decided to run for the board, kind of put myself out there and here I am today, and I have loved it every year since.

After the general elections I hope to get elected to chair.

Matt DeSumma

I am running re-election for the board this year. Last year I focused on representation and advocacy, to mend the communication gap between campuses. I wanted to know what’s going on with Waterloo, and I wanted Waterloo to know what’s going on with Brantford.

This year I am going to continue to focus on that, but I also wanted to have more of a leadership mentality, I want to be involved in the training process of directors. I also want to hold the board accountable for their mistakes. Last year there was a lot of flack and criticisms regarding what a board director said on social media, so I want to make sure what a director says and does, does not reflect poorly on the board, to hold them accountable for what they do. I wanted to run again because I just enjoyed the atmosphere and experience.

I am a Law and Society, Human Rights student, I have been getting involved since my brother (Nick DeSumma) was in first year; we are twins but he came a year before me so I have always been at the campus and got to meet so many people. I was an icebreaker this past O-Week and I also work for the Writing Centre: Centre for Students Success, so I am a busy guy. My brother got me interested in student politics. He told me about it, and it’s always been something we are both interested in. Seeing his experience on the board first hand, gave me the steppingstone to actually do it myself.

Thanisa Chandran

I am running for the Board of Directors and this is my first time. My main goal is to make the student body more aware of the board of directors. As I was going to get my 50 signatures, I realized that no one knows what the Board of Directors is.  I feel like if we have more info fairs that will make us more recognized on campus, as well as recruiting students with similar interest in policy research or students who just want to make a difference within the board.

I am a second year Law and Society student and last year I was involved with Night Hawks. This year I got more involved, I am the Marketing Executive on the Law and Society Student Association and the Human and Social Sciences Association as wells as a general member with the South Asian Alliance. I have friends from the Students’ Union, so that is kind of what intrigued me to run for Board of Directors as well as my interest for policy and research. I am going into law and feel like this would be a great learning experience as well as campaigning and to have to think critically would be a great skill.

As apart of the Board of Directors, relating to my platform, I can talk to them and try to make us more visible to the student body. I have skills in marketing to definitely help out with that.