David DiBrina—USC President, 4th year Ivey HBA
Harry Orbach-Miller—Vice President, 4th year Jewish Studies
D: We met in Ally Western! I was looking for someone who really knew the USC when I was hiring for Ally Western, and Harry applied for the position of Policy Coordinator, which was the position I wanted, because I knew with Ally Western, I wanted to be pushing for change, and I needed someone who could navigate the black box that is the USC. So, Harry applied, and we hit it off in the interview, and then we worked together all year last year and did some really great things together, and now here we are.
H: And then David joined council, and we had focused mostly on Ally Western, but then we realized: look at all this change we can make in the USC. I’m not sure if you saw, but our big campaign values are transparency, accountability, and fairness, and these are things that people say all the time, so why should you believe us? And that is simply because this is all stuff that we’ve actually done. Something David and I did is we put a motion together, and from now on, every student who is on the ancillary fee committee will be elected.
D: This is a big point for us. What we’re talking about during this campaign is proven. We’ve done these things, we’ve upheld these values. So these aren’t just things that we’re talking about now that we’ve never even done before, these are things that we have done, and changes that we’ve made already. We feel confident that, should we have the opportunity to be elected, that right away on day one, we can start advocating for students, and start making sure that they have the proper voice speaking for them.
H: If you read some of the other platforms, go in depth with them. They’ll have really good first ten-word answers, but ask for their next ten words—they don’t have them.
D: We did the research; we’re ready. We’re ready to make sure that students are properly represented because that’s what we want to see. And what I want to make sure happens is, you know, during the campaign, we see candidates, pumping out “let’s talk to students” and then they get elected, and it never happens. Harry and I are committed to reaching out, we are committed to be the ones to go to different faculties and different clubs and make sure that their voices are actually heard.
H: To build off of that, for us, our big thing is that, people feel that the USC is so powerless. We want to bring the trust back to students, not just by increasing engagement, but by showing what the USC can do. To show that real things can happen.
D: The reason we’re really excited for this election is because we are really looking forward to making a change that students want to see. We’ve been consulting students, even prior to putting out the platform because we want to make sure that our platform solves students needs. We think that the people who can solve the problems are students themselves, so we really want to make sure we’re reaching out to them, getting their voices heard, and actually taking their thoughts and putting them into tangible action.
H: That’s one thing I think students have really felt left out on—there’s so much disenfranchisement. Students see these platform points, every single year: 3 in 23, fall reading week, freeze tuition, and those are so hollow. Let’s actually say something that’s real that we can do and actually makes an impact.
D: Let’s cut the BS in a sense—let’s put up there what students want and what we actually can accomplish. So we’re really putting in a lot of this work to make sure that we’re following through with our points. And we’ll be able to walk you through how we want to do the things (in our platform).
H: We gotta talk about our most real point.
D: Are you ready for it? Close the Purple Store.
H: This isn’t just some idea we’re trying to gain attention with, this is based on actual research. I went through (the store) and looked at some of their sweaters, their T-shirts, then I went down to the Bookstore, and I wanted to see what the prices are there. And they’re all marginally less expensive at the Bookstore. So, first, the Purple Store is just more expensive—why? It’s student run, why is it more expensive? Then we looked at the USC budget. And it loses $10,000 per year. Which essentially means that you, and all the other students, are essentially subsidizing a duplication of service that Western does cheaper and better. So why does it exist? What’s the value for students? And that’s our big thing, is to look at it and say, hey, how does this actually add for students? Instead of “what’s this going to do for the USC?”
D: See these ridiculously long lines during lunch? We want to cut those down. And we really think that the way to do that is starting a restaurant here like Freshii. We can cut those lines down, students have to spend less time in line and more time eating, and get back to their work, and it’s a healthy option. Great vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free options, kosher and Halal options.
H: And you should eat food that you feel good about eating, that you also don’t hate at the same time.
D: So it’s going to solve the problem and make sure there’s better, healthy options. And it will solve the problem of these long lines, and it’s going to solve the problem of losing $10,000 a year.
H: We want to stop wasting students money and take the rent that we get and put it back into student growth.
D: You’re going to love this—they tweeted at us yesterday, saying that they would love to be closer. So it’s already in the works, we’re already talking to people, making sure that what we have and what we’re talking about is going to turn into tangible change. And that’s what it’s all about.
H: And that’s one of our things, all of our platform points were meticulously researched. So we don’t wanna say, “buzzword, buzzword, buzzword, hey vote for us.” People say “student engagement” all the time, but in the end there has to be some substantive change in actual policy and actual infrastructure. If you just keep talking to students, that’s just talk—you actually have to do something.