USU Board Candidates 2019: Di (Eve) Wang

Panda

Commerce/Law II

“We BeliEVE”.

Quiz Score: 44%

Interviewed by Boapu He and Karishma Luthria. 

Candidate Profile: 

Eve Wang belongs to the growing cadre of self-identifying “politically neutral” candidates to run for USU Board despite obvious factional affiliations and the inherent contradictions of the term. Wang has loose affiliations with the international student group Panda, having campaigned for Zimeng Ye in last year’s Board campaign.

As one of the younger candidates, Wang holds some of the least experience for the role of Director, with little prior engagement in student politics and student leadership. Her policy platform is relatively vague and features a number of policies with questionable feasibility, including the expansion of Access rewards to off-campus establishments. Where Wang’s limited policy platform is obviously stronger is in areas that focus on international students, including expanding Counselling and Psychological Services to languages other than English.

Judging by her interview, Wang sees her role primarily as a representative for international students. Almost all her answers revolved around this community: her main criticism of the Board was its lack of international student engagement, the main challenge for the Board she identified was increasing international student engagement, and the primary achievements of the Board she identified were the steps it had taken to increase international student engagement.

Like previous Board Director Koko Kong, Wang is more or less a single issue candidate. It’s fair to say that, for those uninterested in international student issues, Wang has little to offer. For the sizeable number of international students who do struggle with the inaccessibility of many parts of the Union and the University more broadly however, Wang may be the best option.