By Al Downham
From Feb. 10-12, the Ryerson Communication and Design Society (RCDS) held its annual Board of Directors (BoD) election. Among other newly elected candidates was upcoming RCDS VP finance Vinh Tran, a third-year graphic communications management student and current VP finance for the Graphic Communications Management Course Union.
The Eyeopener spoke with him before his transitional meeting about his future goals as an RCDS VP.
How do you feel about your election win?
I think it went pretty well. I probably could have marketed myself a bit better. But by having one serious and casual video, I felt I could get my point across that I’m not only about the business, but about the students as well. If I had more time, I’d add more about how to increase transparency and gaining more awareness on how students in FCAD can use funding available to them.
You said in a previous interview you thought the process for RCDS student group funding is loose. Could you go a bit into why you think the student funding format is this way?
[While applying] I feel like, I don’t know who I go to talk to. I don’t know who I have to talk to or contact directly, or if I have to talk to like 10 different people. I do want to make it clearer and easier, because I know a lot of students have that problem. More communication, that’s what I’m saying.
What’s the limit you want to put on student funding applications?
At least $10,000. But I need to see if that’s realistic in my transitional meeting. I feel like maxing funding at $10,000, it realistically allows our budget to stay healthy. But also have the person select upon why they need $10,000 from us in the first place.
Do you think the amount being given to student projects by the RCDS is healthy for the society?
From my experiences, I’d like to believe they are. But I know that by looking at the student budget and them having an amount carry over. I believe that it’s healthy right now, but a lot more people could use that funding. A lot more people should access that funding.
Why would you want a separate committee for the RCDS BoD members to apply for student funding?
For internal members it wouldn’t have that conflict of interest thing. And that, say for example, if there was a committee of just the presidents of every student group in RCDS, there’d be less of a bias in my opinion.
You said in a previous interview you wanted quicker turnaround time for student funding applications. Do you have an action plan to make this goal achieveable?
I know there’s a finance committee within RCDS, but I want to build upon that structure. They have a specific person for social events, for example, or different types of events. I wanted to have it so there’s different people for specific accounts. So they’d have one person to talk to and they wouldn’t have to go through other people to talk to when they get funding.
Quotes have been edited for clarity.
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