The 5th CSC Town Hall
Written by Li Shuen
It’s election season here at RVRC and despite the ongoing pandemic, the student blog team took one for our community (no need to thank us for our sacrifice, you’re welcome) and attended the RVRC 5th CSC Elections Town Hall Meeting to find out more about our future representatives, so you wouldn’t have to.
Tensions went high and the 8 potential candidates were put on the hot seat, interrogated and grilled with no mercy. However, they managed to handle the heat and conveyed their vision and goals for RVRC in the next academic year across. Here’s a summary of the key insights as to what went down on the night of the 13th and we hope this can help you to make an informed choice in this voting period!
The Town Hall began with a 1.5 minutes introduction of all the CSC candidates and here’s what they’ve got to say!
Munnamgi Harsha Vardhan Reddy (running for President):
Harsha, along with Team Teletubbies, aims to bridge the gap between seniors and the incoming year 1s next AY, as he sees that there’s a huge gap between the year 1s and year 2s. Not only that, he would also wish to be more incorporated with the other UTown RCs, looking for more potential collaboration with them.
David Goh (running for President):
David thanked everyone for coming for the townhall and commended Team Teletubbies on their campaigning efforts. (fun fact: David is the only one running solo; the rest are running as a team). #chillvibesonly
Marcus Duigan (running for Vice-President, External):
Marcus talked about his leadership and management within RVRC, where he was in the CSC’s Special Projects Committee, and lead a few events such as: night cycling and Inter-College Halloween. He hopes to achieve greater representation from RVRC amongst all other RCs and to have more equal standing within the RCs. (funfact: he’s a mixed Chinese and New Zealand and kinda has an accent..)
Jody Tang (running for Vice-President, Internal):
Jody hopes to change the image amongst the freshmen and why she chose this role because she wishes to be the bridge between CSC and the upcoming FOC (as she is in the Orientation Committee for the upcoming RVRC FOC). She has many student welfare ideas that she wishes to implement if she were to be chosen as the VPI.
Dianne Low (running for General Secretary):
Dianne starts by talking about her experience in the Operations Sub-Committee of the CSC, and she likes to see her peers having fun. She’s meticulous and detail-oriented, and she believes that she will be able to make the meetings more efficient with her skills.
Lim Jia Yi (running for Financial Director):
Jia Yi talked about her experience in the Special Projects Sub-Committee and she realised that through this journey, she would want to be a part of something more in RVRC. Over her whole journey of secondary school and Junior College, she has always participated in organising committee work and she would want a more powerful role, hence she ran for the CSC as the Financial Director. Jia Yi mentioned that she’s very careful and in her WR class, she actually discovered her strength in managing finances well, and thinks she would be good at this role.
Ong Ning Wei (running for Welfare Director):
Ning Wei started off by saying she was in the Welfare Sub-Committee, and it was quite nice to see people smile during Welfare events, and hence she wanted to step up as the Welfare Director to do more and see people’s smiles. She also mentioned she loves RVRC a lot!
Danesh Zubin Dabu (running for Communications Doirector):
Danesh started off with a very cheerful and chill note by introducing himself. Danesh is a year 1 Business Student with a 2 year internship in the army. RVRC was actually Danesh’s first choice as he really liked the mix of old and new in RVRC. If he was voted in as Communications Director, he suggested wanting to implement more town halls for the residents to hear the thoughts and voices.
Following the introduction, there were many questions coming from the ground and here’s a few we picked out that were more interesting!
Seeing that David is the only one that’s not in Team Teletubbies, I’d like to know why David wanted to run for the CSC and why did he run for President?
David mentioned that he’s always been interested in this kind of stuff. If he has an idea, he wants to do it, he’ll do it. He enjoys doing projects and giving back to the community. His vision is to bridge the connection between CSC and the other residents. He sees CSC becoming a group that residents can SEE and rely on. On the second question, David said that he’s not very strong at just one position, but his strength is being able to organise people and optimise their strength, but he’s not good at just specific one thing.
How do they plan to improve the perception of CSC in RVRC?
Jody seeks to increase residents’ understanding of the communication channels between them and CSC so as to make it more effective, and ensure that residents are aware of events being held. When asked about how to improve the willingness of residents to turn up for events, she answered that the OGs from Freshman Orientation Camp (FOC) are likely to break off as the semester progresses, and that if no one initiates the plan, no one would go for the event. Her solution is to ensure that OGs remain close after FOC.
Since Danesh is running for Communications Director, does he think getting people to come for events will be a large part of his job scope?
Danesh envisions that he will be working with the House Committees a significant amount to get the word out about CSC events. He also proposed some unconventional ideas, such as an incentive system which rewards residents who bring people for events (think of it like a job with commission, more sales, more rewards :D).
Many residents don’t actually get the opportunity to take part in FOC, and thus don’t have OGs. Some of them end up being phantoms, and do not actively participate in events. Any ideas of how to resolve this?
David admits that the CSC social media channels (Instagram, Telegram etc.) are not very effective at promoting and encouraging people to attend events. He also mentions that the CSC should be very active on the ground, interacting and creating connections with residents such that residents are curious about events and are more inclined to take part in them. Harsha suggests that house events are crucial platforms for encouraging people to come down for events as they help forge bonds within the house. He also proposes that suppers are a great way to meet people, or even talking to them in the DH as the first steps in increasing interaction between all residents and the CSC. Ning Wei adds that more effort should also be placed on interacting with one’s neighbours, through her own experience of not knowing her neighbours at all.
If Team Teletubbies becomes the CSC, what would they do to change the perception that RVRC is a “2nd choice” RC?
Jody started off by saying that changing the residents’ mentality about RV (based on remarks of seniors who did not put RV in the best light) is the most important. She claims that by improving our own perceptions of RV, we will talk about it with greater positivity, which will lead to an improved perception of RV in others’ eyes. She also says that RV should fight to be included in the UTown RCs’ events, as it is a good platform to prove to others that RV is great. Harsha also added that by bringing residents together through big or small events would forge better bonds between friends and their perception of RVRC would change. Danesh suggests that we do something similar to Tembu Tuesdays, where they wear the green Tembusu t-shirt on Tuesdays. Mr Desmond swiftly countered this by asking the nominees if they would wear the purple RV shirt (to which the audience laughed because, 1) nO and 2) all of the nominees were wearing black).
Mr Desmond looks around the room and notices many seniors (years 2,3,4) but few year 1s. Where are their supporters?
Danesh started off by claiming that students were busy and that this town hall cut into their free time. He suggested that they can do more (more what? Townhalls? Or outreach?). David, on the other hand, admitted that he might have failed in promoting the town hall to his friends, and learnt that he has to believe that everything has equally high importance. He says that the CSC has to believe that they are 200% in so that the residents can believe in them. Harsha also claims that Team Teletubbbies did not publicise it enough, and that they should look into technological ways of promoting the town hall. Marcus suggested a digital town hall where students could submit their questions online, in the event they did not want to speak up in a large group. Jia Yi felt that the town hall was targeted at people who wanted to find out more about the nominees, and thus did not ask their supporters to come down as they already had an avenue to reach them. She also mentioned that Team Teletubbies went around RVRC, knocking on resident’s doors and talking to them. Lastly, Dianne mentioned that some people aren’t that interested in what the nominees want to do, and that they can’t be forced to come for the town hall.
Most of the nominees are from Rusa house, will this lead to a problem since one house is dominant?
Ning Wei starts off by saying she’s from Strix house, and that she actively voices out her opinions as she believes in equality. David suggested that if the CSC team consisted of mainly one house, one way to reach out to other houses would be to have supper at their blocks with them, to get to know them, their concerns and ideas. Harsha agreed that it may be an issue if all CSC members are from the same house as it may be biased towards Rusa, and said that their efforts to go around RV and talk to the other residents was an aim to increase interaction with all residents so they can identify the correct concerns. Marcus also added that Team Teletubbies has tried to find people from other houses to join their team but were unsuccessful.
Jody mentioned that she wants to be the bridge between CSC and FOC, why?
She mentions that she is in charge of programmes for FOC 2020, and feels that she will be able to get a rough sense of what the freshman are like. This will help her as a VP-internal, as she will be further informed of what sparks their interests and encourages them to come down for events.
Even if we don’t go for events, we still get our welfare. So why should we go for events?
Ning Wei reiterates that they need to consider all residents’ opinions, be connected to each other and put themselves out there in order to convince them that what the CSC has planned is the best for them.
What if there is one person in the team who doesn’t do their work? What would you do?
Harsha says that he would find out what the underlying issue is, since they are quite open to discussing personal issues with each other. Jody, seconds this by saying that she would approach them and gently remind them of their duties, in case they have other problems. If the issue becomes persistent, then it should be voiced to a teacher, or in the worst case, the person should be replaced. Danesh suggests that there should be a backup for every person, in the sense that each person in the CSC should be responsible for their own sub-committees and that the directors need to be able to ensure the work is done at the end of the day.
How would you encourage people to run for the next CSC?
Marcus mentions that giving opportunities is a great way to inspire others to serve better. This is seconded by Harsha, who suggests giving the CSC subcommittees more power and the ability to plan more events. He also claims that they need to promote the CSC elections more and that seniors need to encourage the juniors more in running. Ning Wei also suggests that a survey form at the start of FOC would help identify those who are keen in leadership.
What if there is something the student body wants, but the management is not on board with? What are you going to do?
Harsha starts off by saying that they have to look at the possible constraints and see how much the management can compromise. Danesh says that they should give and take, and be a little stubborn in order to keep pushing the management. David mentions that there is a fine line between keeping residents happy and managing the expectations of the management. He says that they should be reasonable in managing everyone’s expectations and boundaries and emphasises that it is on the CSC to be able to tell their residents on the compromises that have to be made.
…and that wraps up the town hall session! Shots were fired, tough questions were fielded, but our candidates did not buckle under pressure! They kept their cool and responded with insightful and compelling ideas for the college, showing their dedication and devotion to RVRC. Now the time has come for YOU to cast your vote to decide the next generation of RVRC leaders! You have heard from them through the past weeks of campaigning and now it is your turn to make a choice (or if you haven’t perhaps your vote can reflect that?). The voter turnout rate during the 2016 Elections that propelled Trump to presidency was 55.4%, here’s a subtle reminder that every vote counts and you have many options. Aside from voting for a candidate, the option of voting against a candidate exists (no shade intended). In order for candidates to successfully get into the CSC, they need to obtain a majority of 75% ‘yes votes (for those without competition). The future of RVRC is in your hands, and we sincerely hope that all residents will make a sound decision after careful deliberation, to elect a committee that truly represents and understands the voice of the people!
Cast your vote now at: https://nus.campuslabs.com/engage/submitter/election/start/387342
We would also like to thank the Electoral Committee, Ngiam, Dora & Martyn for planning the 5th CSC Elections. Without them, there won’t be any elections. They are the true unsung heroes (other than us writing the blog now).
This blog post is a combined effort between Sneha, Lillian and Li Shuen. Should you have any queries, feel free to leave a comment or contact any of us! Happy voting y’all, and remember to vote wisely!