USU Board candidates 2021: David Zhu

Slogan: David Delivers

Colour: Purple

Quiz score: 57%

Faction: SULC

David Zhu is ready to deliver. Zhu describes himself as having “the skills, the experience, and the vision.” to get on Board. 

And he’s certainly got experience.With executive tenures on the Kiwi Students Society, Liberal Club, Economics Society, and SULS furnishing his resume. From this experience alone, he certainly has the requisite USU engagement to be considered a qualified candidate.

Zhu’s connections to the Liberal Party are no secret. He campaigned for Ben Hines in last year’s USU Board elections and ran on Vibe for SULS in the same year. He says it’s no secret he’s “good mates” with Ben Hines and while he’d need to hear out every candidate before backing one for President, it seems likely he’d be Backing Ben.

Describing himself as  a “sensible centrist,” Zhu’s policies are mostly uncontroversial. His vision is all about a revitalisation of campus culture, with an accoutrement of welfare, sustainability, diversity, and transparency policies served on the side. Zhu thinks that a “post COVID campus culture cannot only be better than what it was but we can also improve on it.” He notes sustainability, diversity, and club funding as areas that could benefit from some much needed tweaks, with off campus alcohol subsidies and a dual-stream C&S funding model being two examples. Clubs and societies are really at front of Zhu’s policy platform. “Go big or go home” is his watchword and he thinks that applies most of all to the USU’s funding of C&S, saying that the union should be committing as much money as possible to the flagship campus program.

 While Zhu thinks that the USU should take political stances on issues that matter to students (such as education cuts), he does not think that every decision should be driven by political faction or ideology. 

Scoring a 57% on our quiz, Zhu is a strong candidate and demonstrates the necessary knowledge, experience, and comprehension to serve on Board.