Third-year international economics student Sylvester Adinam Mensah Jr wants to bring his diverse experiences to the VP administration portfolio and improve relationships with undergrad societies and clubs.
The candidate is in a two-way race with Aidan Wilson. Over his years at UBC, Mensah said he has grown from his time at the Vancouver School of Economics Undergraduate Society, UBC Recreation and AMS Events. Emphasizing his events experience, his platform wants to “empower” students — and make every week feel like AMS Firstweek.
“Coming into this role, I want every single week to feel like the first two weeks of school with regards to the amount of engagement, the amount of creativity and the amount of things available for students to do and interact with.”
Mensah said he has the “disposition” of an ideal VP administration: someone able to “relate to people easily [and] fluently.”
“I feel as though there wasn’t any better time for me to run,” he said.
When asked about AMS Policy I-17, the society’s standalone sexual assault policy which passed in fall 2019, Mensah said he was “not that familiar with it.” His lack of policy knowledge was noticeable during debates.
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In discussing his plans for club resources in his interview with The Ubyssey, Mensah acknowledged that “most clubs are very stagnant” due to a lack of institutional knowledge with typically annual club executive changes.
Mensah said he’d host workshops for club execs on how to better market their events. This, he explained, would benefit small clubs with fewer resources than larger clubs, but it is unclear how this would address yearly executive turnover.
Mensah said he would host mandatory workshops for club execs when the replacement to Clubhouse, the central software where clubs could book rooms, is functional. Annual workshops would follow.
Part of his plan to empower students is to “enforce a feedback channel” between undergraduate societies and their constituencies, although he didn’t describe what the channel would look like.
He touched on sustainability, saying that his policies would expand beyond environmental sustainability to “human, economic and social sustainability” but did not elaborate on particular policy proposals.
When asked what he thought of VP Administration Cole Evan’s performance, Mensah gave a generic answer approving of Evans’s “changing [of] policies” but was unable to say anything Evans could improve on.
With Evan’s admin staff currently negotiating a Memorandum of Understanding with the InterFraternity Council after its club status was revoked, Mensah’s fraternity membership raises concerns of whether he could remain nonpartisan in talks between the groups. He reassured voters it wouldn’t affect his stance when Wilson questioned his loyalties in debate.
Still, Mensah is confident in his goals.
“I do genuinely believe I can accomplish everything I’m setting out to do,” he said. “But there isn’t any particular issue that keeps me up at night with regards to this role.”
Sylvester Mensah Jr previously served on the The Ubyssey's Board of Directors, but resigned shortly before the AMS elections campaigning period began. The Board of Directors does not influence the decisions of content editors.