VUWSA Election Candidate Interviews: Academic Vice-President
The Academic Vice-President represents students on academic issues, working with students and University staff on academic programmes, policies and procedures, and helping lead VUWSA’s student-representation work. This year, Sage Garrett, Aría Lal and Shay McEwan are contesting the role. Salient asked each candidate questions tailored to the promises they have made during their campaigns, which you can read below.
Candidate: Shay McEwen
What have you learned from your current university committee experience that would shape you as AVP?
For me, the biggest lesson I’ve learned this year is that showing up isn’t enough! Serving as Āpiha Mātauranga for Ngāi Tauira has given me firsthand experience in listening to students, asking tough questions, and following through once the doors to those meetings closed. Student representation requires consistency, deep curiosity, and constantly pushing to find out what happens next.
What specific academic support improvement would you prioritise?
Finding academic support lowkey feels like navigating a maze. When you’re already stressed about an assignment, searching through endless pages on the uni website just to find the right person to help is exhausting. My priority is streamlining that pathway so tutoring, extensions, and advocacy are straightforward and accessible for every community! Getting the help you need shouldn’t take so long.
How would you make the University accountable for acting on student feedback?
We’ve all gotten an automated email that’s like "thanks for your feedback" and some of us wonder where that information actually went. Students deserve transparency and a clear view of how their concerns turn into action through a simple tracker showing what changed and what remains stuck. When you take the time to speak up, your voice deserves genuine accountability, active follow-up, and continuous collaboration with student groups.
Candidate: Sage Garrett
What is one realistic academic change you would achieve in your first year as AVP?
Many students have noticed issues stemming from our lecturers being heavily overworked, such as turning to AI for lecture content and marking. While I will advocate for improved AI policy for both students and faculty, issues like this will continue to arise if we don’t better assist staff. Therefore, as AVP, I would extend external academic programmes (e.g. PASS) beyond 100-level to support your lecturers and you.
What specific change would you push for to better support disabled and neurodivergent students?
My policies for supporting neurodivergent students include body-doubling study groups and promoting neurodivergent-friendly learning strategies. Given our increased likelihood of being visual and relational learners, video-recorded lectures should be the norm – not just slides and audio. Even better, these approaches wouldn't only benefit neurodivergent whānau, but all students. The breadth of disabled and neurodivergent experience demands significant student feedback, so I would also run focus groups to explore how we can improve student support.
How would you make student feedback and VUWSA’s advocacy more transparent?
Students have told me it’s unclear what an AVP is or how they can help. As AVP, I would consistently build awareness of what I can do for students. I’ll have an open-door policy and direct student engagement so that everyone has a more active role in decision-making. Crucially, more transparent communication starts now. In this campaign, I won’t promise anything outside of VUWSA’s control. You don’t need empty promises; you can expect actionable progress.
Candidate: Aría Lal
Of your priorities, what would you tackle first as AVP, and why?
My first priority would be building collective student power within the university. Students are too often treated as recipients of decisions rather than participants in making them. I would strengthen class representatives, build stronger links between student groups and decision-makers, and support collective organising around issues affecting students. I would also make VUWSA’s advocacy transparent, so students can see what we are fighting for, what we have won, and where further organising is needed.
What would meaningful student influence in university decision-making look like to you?
Meaningful student influence requires students to participate in decision-making before outcomes are determined, with transparency about what follows. I would advocate for substantive student consultation on fees, courses, and academic support. I would also publish regular, accessible updates through VUWSA's social media outlining student concerns, how VUWSA responded, university decisions, and areas where advocacy has not succeeded. Student participation should have demonstrable outcomes, with VUWSA accountable to the students it represents!
How would you ensure marginalised student groups are meaningfully represented in your advocacy?
I can't represent every student, nor should I claim to. Real representation requires creating structures that let marginalised students articulate their own experiences and priorities. This means consistent consultation, resourcing students to participate in the decision-making spaces that affect them, and ensuring that they understand and respond to proposals before decisions are made. As AVP, I would advocate for these perspectives to be communicated directly to the decision-makers responsible for their academic experience.
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