By Tom Jordan, and Skanda Panditharatne
Content Warning: Mentions of sexual assault and sexual harassment.
The elections for the postgraduate student association, PARSA, will take place next week. This year’s election sees a contest between two tickets: Empower, led by current PARSA College of Science representative Michel Watson; and Vision, led by current PARSA Vice-President Zyl Hovenga-Wauchope. There are also a number of independent candidates running for various offices. Observer collated all the candidates, and compared the policies of the two major tickets.
The Candidates
Executive Nominees
President
More information on the Presidential candidates may be found in their manifestos here.
Zyl Hovenga-Wauchope is the current Vice-President of PARSA and Vision’s candidate for President. This year, Hovenga-Wauchope has led PARSA’s Home Away from Home campaign advocating for students seeking accommodation in Canberra. At the PARSA Election Debate earlier this week, Hovenga-Wauchope said the biggest issue facing postgraduate students is challenges in finding accommodation. In terms of leadership style, he stressed that he would consult with his team on decision-making. He is also Vision’s nominee for Postgraduate University Council representative.
Michel Watson is a current PARSA College of Science representative and Empower’s candidate for President. Watson was co-director of Women’s Week 2018 and co-organiser of the Sex and Consent Series for 2017. At the PARSA Election Debate, Watson said the biggest issue faced by postgraduate students is social isolation. She also said she would consult with her team where possible, or delegate in the case of time-sensitive issues.
Vice-President
More information on the Vice-Presidential candidates may be found in their manifestos here.
Stephan Modest is Empower’s candidate for Vice-President. Modest has been a Student Representative for the IR Department, Student Ambassador for Study Canberra, O-Week Leader, and an ANU+ Mentor. He is also Empower’s candidate for Postgraduate University Council representative. This is slightly at odds with Vision, who are nominating their presidential candidate, Hovenga-Wauchope, for the position.
Sahar Latheef is Vision’s candidate for Vice-President. Laheef was a General Representative and Equity Officer in PARSA in 2016.
Postgraduate University Council Member
As well as Hovenga-Wauchope and Modest, there are two other candidates for Postgraduate Student Member of the ANU Council. 2016 PARSA President Chris Wilson is also running for the position, as well as independent Alireza Zarebidoki. More information on their candidacies can be found here.
Portfolio Officer Nominees
More information on all the Portfolio Officer Nominees may be found in their manifestos here.
Social Officer
Shubhank Dwivedi – ARAGMA
Veli Buti – Vision
Yamila Cajal – Empower
Equity Officer
Rajiv Raghavendra – Empower
Bernard Cielo II – Vision
International Officer
Charles Xu – Independent
Alireza Zarebidoki – Independent
Yuan Chai – Vision
Dhruv Haria – Empower
Queer Officer
Ian Smith- Empower
Ruixin (Alex) Yang- Vision
Women’s Officer
Felippa (Pippa) Amanta- Vision
Yumna Has- Empower
Rabbia Saleem- Independent
Disability Officer
Rahul Ravi – Vision
Peter Park – Empower
HDR Officer
Heba Al Adawy – Vision
Mita Anggaryani – Empower
Coursework Officer
Sita Naik – Empower
Rittwick Visen – Vision
Environmental Officer
Crystal Holt – Empower
Lilu Moala – Vision
Education Officer
Zoe Tulip – Vision
Yantong Liu- Independent
College Officer Nominees
More information on all the College Officer Nominees may be found in their manifestos here. PARSA divides their college officers into one coursework and higher degree by research (HDR) officer.
College of Asia & the Pacific (CAP) Officer
Milena Soares – Vision
Maeve Rolland – Empower
Andree Surianta – Vision
College of Business & Economics (CBE) Officer
Yingnan Shi – Vision
Neel Gala – Vision
Yaowen (Paris) Cai – Empower
College of Engineering & Computer Science (CECS) Officer
Puneet Garg – Empower
Sid Pethe – Empower
Roc Chen – Vision
Ankita Gagrani – Vision
College of Science (CoS) Officer
Jessica Hargreaves and Andrew Almonte elected unopposed
College of Health & Medicine (CHM) Officer
Emily Sisson – Empower
Kitiphume Thammasiraphop – Vision
Rebecca Lawrence elected unopposed
College of Arts & Social Science (CASS) Officer
Conrad Maclean and Katie Cox elected unopposed
College of Law (CoL) Officer
Haikun Huang – Empower
Chris Skoglund – Vision
Kate Falconer elected unopposed
The Policies
Below, we’ve summarised the policies of each of the major tickets, Empower and Vision, and pointed out important differences and similarities between their policy platforms. Some of these policies could ultimately be outside the control of PARSA – we may assume in those cases that tickets mean simply to advocate for policies. Some are things already happening. Many are shared by both tickets. However, there are some genuine differences between the two tickets. For example, Vision wants to trial a postgraduate publication, start a buddy mentoring program, update Access and Inclusion for EAP, start a PARSA online store, and provide an international student welcome pack. Empower wants to develop a grant scheme for postgraduate internships, create an anonymous feedback portal, and produce a handbook on student safety.
Sections of this article were altered after publication to better reflect ticket policy. This included the Communication/Consultation, Families/Parents, International Postgraduate Students and Off-Campus students policy sections.
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