Q & A: Rory Yendt

The following are selected questions and answers from the Sil’s interview with MSU presidential candidate Rory Yendt.

Q: How does your campaign plan to motivate and inspire students to care about a) voting and b) the MSU?

It’s mainly based off of letting the students see a more open financial institute. Basically opening up the MSU to all students to see what financials are going on. Mainly it’s getting the point across to students, so they can listen. I’m mainly targeting first years because they tend to change their political views a lot more than most people. For example, with me, I’ve changed my view now and I’m basically set with it for the rest of university ... It’s a lot better to work with students who are open to change [than to direct apathetic students].

 Q: What initiative or action would you take within the first 30 days of your term if you were to be elected?

What I really want to see is the work done on the referenda. I really want students to get to vote every four years, or at least get the wheels turning. I’m talking about non-operational funds. I want to have those voted on every four years so students can choose whether they want these fees or not. It would be staggered throughout the four years so you would have a few referenda each year so that, by the end of most students' educations here, they would have a chance to vote on each and every one of the funds.

Q: Why did you decide to run and how long ago?

It was probably about two weeks ago that I decided to run. I figured it was a good opportunity to get politically involved. And a good opportunity to get students best interests into motion. This year [my political involvement] has taken off. I’ve always been interested in general politics, but being actively involved has been more of a university thing.

 Q: How much power do you think the MSU has to change campus capacity?

I would say it has a lot. It’s a $12-million organization, so when it comes to dealing with students it has a great deal of power but not absolute … [But] the budget of the MSU isn’t very large compared to how much expanding the campus would probably cost … It has a lot to do with what society needs in certain fields. If your field has 10,000 applicants, there’s no need to accept all of them, we just generally cut them off and let in the better ones. We’ve got a life science program in which the average is sky-rocketed due to the demand of all the students, but society has relatively low needs for it … I believe it’s all just communication. You can’t really make more effect than voicing the students opinion about [campus capacity].

 Q: I notice you use "engineering" as a key word in your platform, but how do you plan to target students outside of Engineering?

I plan on doing mainly lecture speeches so I can communicate to other students, mainly first years. For them it’s less about the engineering, more about if the platform hits home for them.

Q: What made you choose Mac, or what brought you here? 

It was relatively close to where I grew up. I didn’t feel like the other universities had what I wanted. The other two I applied for were Queens and "Waterwoo." It was a split between this and Waterloo. But I guess this location was best for me.

What qualifies you to be the president?

I believe it comes down to taking it a bit more seriously and basing it a lot more on what you plan on doing rather than just trying to convince voters.

 Q: What is your favourite type of timbit?

Definitely the chocolate ones.

 Q:If you could invite any famous figure to a dinner party, who would you invite?

Richard Dawkins.

Q: What’s your all-time favourite youtube video?

Most recently it’s probably the parody of gangnam style with Mitt Romney.

Q:What are the Ideal traits/qualities you’d look for in a mate?

Mostly intelligence, but there’s a whole per cent thing I’ve got worked out. But it comes down to intelligence and personality. They would have to have a similar personality otherwise it conflicts in the long-run.

 Q: What is your favourite place on campus and why?

Probably ETB because there is a cool lab in there.

 Q: What is your favourite memory at Mac?

It was definitely one of the house parties I went to in first-year. Where it was one of my friend’s birthdays and I was basically there to keep him from doing anything stupid. Trying to get him into a cab was fun to say the least.

Dogs or Cats: Cats

FB or Twitter: Twitter

Pop Tarts or Eggos: Eggos

Beer or Liquor: Liquor

HP or LOTR: Lord of the Rings

Spice Girls or Backstreet Boys: BSB