Liz McKeown

Exclusive Interview

Profile

Liz McKeown wants to speak on behalf of Mount Royal students. As a candidate for the VP student life position her main goal is to create active participation of students to let their voices be heard.
“I keep saying it again and again, but I want to ask the students to go check out the profiles on the SAMRC website and see what platforms speak to you and go vote,” said McKeown.
As a student of Mount Royal for the last six years, McKeown has been friends with many people who participated in the Students’ Association and really became interested in the political process here on campus.
“As cheesy as it sounds it really spoke to my soul,” said McKeown. “I really like the idea of being able to go out there and speak on behalf of a group of people I have been a part of for so long.”
Simply put, McKeown loves Mount Royal and believes she has grown as a person inside and outside the classroom. She believes the portfolio of student life offers a really important link to students’ education outside the classroom.
 “The involvement with the Students’ Association has helped me narrow down what I wanted to do,” said McKeown, an English major. “All the committees I sat on, and the understanding for what makes a college run, ultimately I would love to become a professor … It is really awarding to help people go forward and gain the education that they want to have.”
McKeown believes there are a variety of goals she would like to tackle, but her number one issue is awareness and participation for students in the Student Association.
“We can’t do anything unless we go out there and hear from the students of Mount Royal College,” said McKeown.
Sustainability is also a huge part of her platform, and she would like to see the college get rid of Styrofoam, incorporate a bike co-op, and increase paper recycling.

— Rachel Maclean

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Platform

In March of 2007, I was elected to the position of VP student life. Following this victory, it became my privilege and responsibility to represent student interests and concerns to the college, government, surrounding community, and other post-secondary institutions. I took this responsibility to heart, and am proud to say that in addition to filling every one of my campaign promises, I worked hard to empower students wherever and whenever possible, using SAMRC resources to help make student ideas a reality. I did this by sitting on over thirty committees within the college community, meeting regularly with college admin and personnel, lobbying the municipal and provincial governments, and by initiating, coordinating, and/or implementing a variety of student-focused projects and events. Most importantly, I did this by listening to the wants and needs of our students.

Some things that my fellow students, colleagues and I have accomplished are:

1. Brought in a variety of guest speakers to discuss everything from climate change to sexual health, to the crises in Sudan and the Middle East.
2. Successfully prevented a 12 per cent increase to the U-Pass fee.
3. Worked to make our scholarship and bursary application system easier to understand and apply for.
4. Stopped the college from using plagiarism software that would have seen student privacy threatened.
5. Created events and initiatives such as the Blanket and Towel Drive for the Calgary Drop-In Centre and Sustainability Month.

Should I be re-elected as VP student life, here’s what I want my colleagues and I to do:

1. Advocate for more dedicated study spaces
2. Work to increase faculty involvement with clubs and student initiatives while also promoting a closer relationship between the Mount Royal Faculty Association and the SAMRC
3. Eliminate Styrofoam from Mount Royal and establish the use of more sustainable alternatives, such as re-usable plates and biodegradable containers
4. Move to re-fly the Canadian flag in Wyckham House and fix the clock so it’s correct more than twice a day
5. Work with the college to create effective long-term solutions for our parking problem
6. Improve the transparency and accountability of the SAMRC to its membership (AKA: you!)

I ran for re-election this year with these goals in mind, and won with well over 2/3 of the vote. However, some of the most basic processes of democracy and natural justice were ignored and I was prevented from continuing with the mandate that you, the students, had given me. Since May, Mount Royal students have regularly witnessed some of their “elected” student leaders wasting money and time with divisive in-fighting, and read Reflector articles about executives attending expensive conferences only to skip out on sessions.
This seriously concerns me.
After months of fighting to ensure that transparency and accountability are restored to the SAMRC election process, an independent and legally binding third-party deemed the last election faulty, and has ordered that a byelection be held.

This byelection is our chance to have our voices heard and counted fairly.

Go vote. Vote Liz.

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