Leah Xuereb and Devyn Kelly attended the Brantford campus presidential debate to discuss their platforms in the 2020 Students’ Union Presidential election.

Xuereb is focusing her platform on improving the health and wellness of students. She seeks to improve mental health and wellness resources for students and provide training for university volunteers to strengthen these services.

Kelly has built her platform on actions that will improve the lives of students on-campus. To achieve this goal, Kelly is seeking to provide on-campus vending machines that offer school supplies and healthier food options for students.

Kelly aims to prioritize access to on-campus programming and services, especially for Brantford students.

“I think there are a lot of services offered on the Waterloo campus because of the size of the student body … seeing as the student body on the Brantford campus is a lot smaller and has a lot more unique needs and challenges than the Waterloo campus,” said Kelly.

Xuereb wants to increase the option for healthy living on campus by rebuilding the on-campus farmers’ market which was canceled last year to focus Food Bank funding on student food boxes.

“I just want to bring it back … my goal is to solve the issue of not having much selection in the Food Bank parcels and giving them fresh fruit and vegetables from the farmers market…so that even though money is being used … it is being put back into the Food Bank,” said Xuereb.

She seeks to improve overall student engagement by renewing the Laurier greek system as well as providing more chances for first-year students’ leadership roles.

“One of the main things is the customer experience, giving them an incentive like an end of the year party is super important … so that when those students join and they start volunteering … they have something to start looking forward to,” said Xuereb.

If elected, Xuereb is hoping to build relationships between herself and students.

“I want an open-door policy where they can just shoot me an email and I’ll make sure I answer them. I want to be able to come to Brantford and build those relationships,” said Xuereb.

Multi-campus transportation is one of these issues. Kelly offered the idea where students could see an increase in event ticket cost to provide faster and more reliable transportation between campuses to attend events and services.

Her goal is to provide an online space where students on both campuses are able to access a centralized online application that connects important information on Laurier athletics, campus maps, health resources, events and food services, library and academics for students.

To do so, Kelly wants to provide a “multi-campus events calendar … so as soon as an event is approved by the clubs and association department it automatically gets pushed onto a calendar.” There would be separate calendars for each campus and include a notification system to keep students up-to-date.

Kelly wants to be an advocate for all students on each campus and “understand exactly what they want and need.”

Both Kelly and Xuereb are committed to representing the Brantford campus with a focus on on-campus food services, programming consistency and service diversity.

You can stay up-to-date on important voting information through the Laurier Students’ Union Facebook, website and Instagram pages.

Voting takes place at both campuses from Jan. 28-30, results will be Jan. 30 at 9:00p.m. on the Waterloo campus.