Lucia Liang is running for AMS VP Finance on a platform of sustainable business practices, affordability and professional development for club executives.
Calling herself a “very goal-oriented person,” the first-year arts student and VP finance for the Arts Undergraduate Society (AUS) views running for the AMS position to be a natural step.
“I always look for new opportunities, so the next step forward for me — in my head — as VP Finance of the AUS would be the AMS,” she said.
Liang distinguished herself from other candidates in debates by arguing AMS should not prioritize profits over affordability for students — though she incorrectly claimed that AMS businesses were financially private in her interview with The Ubyssey.
“We gain most of our revenue from student fees anyway, so we shouldn’t be charging students more money and using surplus as a goal,” she said in the first debate.
Instead, Liang wants food outlets to provide healthier, more sustainable and affordable options for students.
“Having a surplus, [we] should be looking into how we can can make the cutlery that is being used [and] all the take-out boxes more sustainable,” she said.
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Liang also wants to save students money by transitioning from paper to online reimbursements for club payments — a goal VP Finance Kuol Akuechbeny ran on last year but has not yet completed — and aims to improve training for financial executives.
“I remember when I first transitioned into the whole VP Finance thing, I was lost,” she said. “I think it’s very important, whether it’s monthly or bimonthly, [to have] some sort of workshop where it teaches students how to do finances.”
She also wants to pilot a new ticketing service for events like Welcome Back BBQ and Block Party because Showpass charges a seven per cent fee and is vulnerable to glitches that cost organizers money.
“I personally dealt with Showpass for the AUS and funding from last year is missing. That took place a year ago, and I'm trying to figure out — like, where does $4,000 go?” said Liang.
A relative newcomer to the AMS, Liang includes some points on her platform that don’t fall under her portfolio, like translating the AMS website into different languages and providing information about the AMS on Canvas.
Liang also wants to ensure AMS investments are ethical and sustainable, but it is unclear how she would build upon the AMS’s current investment policy, which already divested the society from fossil fuels.
“If we are a campus that is progressing forward, I don’t think we should be investing in things that are making a negative impact on the world,” she said.
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