It’s a chilly morning on Burnaby Mountain. The semester has yet to begin, and aside from a few stragglers, the campus is empty: the calm before the storm. Chardaye Bueckert is still days away from beginning her term as the new president of the Simon Fraser Student Society, but she’s already got her work cut out for her.
“It’s really exciting,” she tells me. She’s serious, articulate, and nowhere near as nervous as you’d expect someone in her position to be. “I’ve been sitting down and making plans for the next year. I went through my platform and counted, and I officially made 21 promises in there. So, lots of commitments to follow up on.”
Looking forward to the year ahead as the leader of the Simon Fraser Student Society, Chardaye is leaving no stone unturned. Having been elected by a 23 vote margin over her ACE competitor Brandon Chapman at the end of last semester, she’s spent the past few weeks planning out the details of her upcoming presidential term.
At the top of her list is increasing the accessibility of the SFSS to the average SFU undergrad. “Most students are working a job or two, taking classes full time, transiting from Vancouver or Surrey, so they don’t have a ton of extra time,” she says. “I think what we need to do is make it dead easy to be involved in the student society.”
“We’re not your typical university. We have a different take on things, and I think that makes SFU worth fighting for.” – Chardaye Bueckert, SFSS president
One of her first planned projects as president is an upcoming student consultation in the fall, organized in hopes of encouraging students to participate in their government and to make their voices heard. “We could be doing a better job reaching out to students,” she says.
She’s not kidding: only about 9.5 per cent of students cast a vote in this year’s SFSS election, the lowest turnout in years.
It’s clear from this figure that many SFU undergrads feel like they aren’t being adequately represented by their government — or that they simply don’t care one way or the other. Either way, Chardaye aims to change their minds. But first, she needs to unite one of the most politically diverse boards in SFSS history.
“The way that I look at it, the president is the one who enables the other board members to be leaders in their own respect,” she says, referring to the predominantly ACE board she’ll be working with in the next year. “I think we need to have a collective vision as a team. Everyone might have a different idea of what they want to do — whether that’s throwing a party, or doing advocacy efforts — but we need to make sure it’s going towards one goal.”
That goal, in her mind, is simple: helping SFU students.
“We have the ability to do really amazing things,” she says. “We have such a unique history. We started off as the people’s university, as a response to the elitism and the inaccessibility of higher education. Our history is one of radicalism and rebellion, and although we might not have protests with thousands of people in Convocation Mall anymore, you can still feel that spirit — particularly in the Rotunda area. I think that’s so unique, and so cool.”
President Chardaye is intent on rekindling the activist spark that defined SFU in its formative decades, and she’s not afraid to challenge the status quo to do it. When I ask her why the average student should care about the SFSS, she immediately pulls her uPass out of her wallet. It’s clear this isn’t the first time she’s been asked this question.
“Students currently benefit a lot from things that the SFSS has done,” she says, citing the uPass, originally an SFSS initiative, as a prime example of that benefit.
“When people ask me what the student society is here to do, I always imagine, well, what would happen if we weren’t here?” she says. “I guarantee you that there would be no one to advocate for lower tuition, for instance. The university, they’re great, but they don’t necessarily have the student’s perspective in mind. Same with the government. While they have a conception of what is best for students, only we can really have that voice.”
In her new role as president, Chardaye hopes to speak for the average student — and to give them the courage to speak for themselves. “People do care, they care so deeply,” she says. “And giving them the sense that they can turn that caring into action is one of my biggest goals.”
Whether or not she’ll be able to accomplish all of her goals in the year to come, it’s clear that Chardaye has big plans for this university, and for all of us. For better or worse, Chardaye is prepared to give her all for this school. “We’re not your typical university,” she smiles. “We have a different take on things, and I think that makes SFU worth fighting for.”
So, what does Chardaye do when she’s not climbing the echelons of student government? It seems like the only question she’s not completely prepared for. “I’m a heart of hearts political science kid. I live and breathe politics; I think it’s so interesting and so important.” Other than that, she says, “I really like heavy metal music, I rollerskate, and I’m originally from Medicine Hat, Alberta.”
The more you know, right?
