LUCC Executive Elections 2016 – Candidate Profile (Abedin Rafique)

To prepare our readers for the upcoming Lawrence University Community Council (LUCC) executive elections, The Lawrentian has compiled candidate profiles. Members of the Lawrence community can learn more about these candidates at a debate hosted by The Lawrentian‘s Zach Ben-Amots and Amaan Khan on Monday, Jan. 18 at 8:15 p.m. in the Nathan Marsh Pusey room of the Warch Campus Center.

 

Presidential Candidate Abedin Rafique ’17

Hometown: Dhaka, Bangladesh

Majors, minors and concentrations: Economics and mathematics major

Extracurricular involvement: 

  • Residence Life Advisor (RLA) 2014-15
  • CORE leader 2015-16
  • Photography club
  • Beta Theta Pi (Rush chair 2016 – 17)
  • The Lawrentian Photo Editor

Prior relevant experience: 

  • Public Relations Secretary (2015-16)
  • Sophomore class representative (2014-16)

Basic platform: I want to help make Lawrence feel like a home for every Lawrentian. Student activism, specifically for marginalized students on campus, is still a fringe movement and that places an unfair burden of proving the legitimacy of their actions on the activists. I want to support these communities by being a platform and a voice for their activism and help make the movement for social change a central theme for the campus. On a similar note, I want to revisit our cultural heritage as Lawrentians and rejuvenate or establish traditions that can help Lawrentians bond over shared experiences.

What will you bring to the campus community? My experience with the government, my personal connections with a significant part of the Lawrence community ranging across diverse backgrounds and interests, and my personal stake with issues of diversity, inclusion and social justice on this campus

What works at Lawrence? The RLA program is fantastic. Bystander intervention training, group housing, Diversity Center

What are some key issues you see at Lawrence? We are still not as inclusive as we would like to be, and we need more people to acknowledge that. We are a very clique-y campus and people typically find their friends with whom they have a fantastic experience, but there is very little that Lawrentians connect with each other on at a large scale. Our Campus Life does not always play the role of an advocate as we would like them to.

How would you address or amend these issues as president? Hold the administration accountable, use the privilege that comes with the position to give activism more space and attention than is currently given, engage in discussions with students and Campus Life to find programmatic efforts that can accomplish my agenda

Relevant links: facebook.com/abedin.rafique/

 

[Editor’s Note: Candidates’ submissions have been edited for style.]

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Have questions for Abedin? Ask them as comments below and they may be brought up at the debate on Jan. 18.