MSU Elections 2020: Krystina Koc’s Platform Overview

Photo by Matty Flader / Photo Reporter

Krystina Koc is a Level IV Commerce student at McMaster.

Koc’s platform consists of eight points of action distributed between her two core initiatives: advocacy and student life enhancement. 

Advocacy

Within the advocacy section, Koc focuses on safety, transparency, comfort and internal issues within the McMaster Students Union. Citing reports of break-ins in Westdale and Thorndale areas, Koc claims that student safety is a growing concern among students. Koc aims to improve student safety by increasing lighting in student neighbourhoods and facilitating safety measures with landlords. She also plans to create video modules detailing instructions that might help in potentially unsafe situations. 

Her second initiative calls for the improvement of transparency within the MSU  by writing bi-annual reports that would disclose the progress of MSU activities. 

The third platform point, titled “Be comfortable,” aims to re-open discussions on McMaster’s Department of Athletics and Recreation’s tank-top ban in the Pulse. Koc’s goal is to ensure that everyone can feel comfortable while using McMaster’s athletic facilities.

Koc’s fourth point aims to make the MSU’s internal processes, such as conflict management and review of MSU services, more efficient. 

“I plan to take the work that our current President, Josh Marando, has already begun and [continue] his efforts to improve [the MSU’s] internal workings,” she states in her platform. 

Student Life Enhancement

Koc’s fifth platform point revolves around MSU Clubs. She plans to review all McMaster clubs that are redundant or have been inactive for six months. She believes this would make room for unique clubs and allow students to choose clubs with more ease.

Koc is open to exploring non-MSU clubs having access to campus resources, such as room bookings, for fundraising purposes.

Koc also advocates for the use of student cards at Union Market and aims to reduce the time that the store takes to restock food items. Koc claims that Union Market shelves are often left empty as the shipments needed to refill them come in too late. 

Koc’s seventh point intends to improve access to mental health services on campus by developing strategies to enhance the Student Assistance Plan, a free online platform that offers psychological counselling to McMaster students. She also plans to increase support to Maccess, a peer support outlet for students with disabilities and disabled students. 

Koc’s final platform point aims to combat food insecurity on campus by raising awareness for existing services such as the Food Collective Centre. She cites a U.S. study conducted in 2019 that states that 41 per cent of fourth-year students are food insecure. 

More information about Koc’s platform can be found on her website krystinakoc2020.com.