Interview with Gabriel Boyd | AUSA President

Hi everyone, I’m Mayoora, and I’m here on behalf of Craccum interviewing Gabriel Boyd, President of AUSA. Hi, Gabriel.

Kia Ora guys.

So, Gabriel, you’re currently the AUSA President, but before you became President, you were the President of SASS, the Study Abroad Student Society, and you were also a part of the student body as a regular student. How have you navigated that change in position?

A regular student. (chuckles) I think it was quite a steep learning curve. Obviously,this year’s entire executive came from outside of AUSA, which has merit in bringing in new and creative ideas to the table, new solutions to problems that haven’t been thought of yet, but there also is that information gap in terms of understanding what exactly the role is, I would say that…in terms of transitioning, I think definitely working along with the past president helped the handover quite a bit, and really integrating yourself into the university, meeting with the staff members, who you need to know, and spending time over summer vacation learning the ropes and how the role works. And also understanding that you won’t be able to have many commitments outside of your role for the duration of your term.

So, to understand your transition to this role, what did you study, and- sorry- what do you study and what skills have you picked up from your study that has helped you in this role?

So as a fifth year neurosurgery student- (laughs) Yeah, so I study Politics,
Psychology and Communications which I would say are some of the three bestdegrees to have going into the role. Obviously, we have quite a few law students in AUSA, but each of those degrees contribute in its own way. Obviously, Politics is a lot about working and trying to find solutions to problems that people face, and we’re doing that here at AUSA, working, trying to lobby for cheaper public transport and doing quite a lot of work raising awareness about the Deepfake Digital Harm and Exploitation Bill. Psychology, of course, that’s all about understanding people and knowing how to work as a team, and then Communications, I would say, is the most important skill to have as an elected representative because you’re communicating not only with your team, not only with your staff, but with outside stakeholders: with the government, with the media.

And also your experience as being President of SASS, how has that
experience helped you with this role?

Oh, in so many ways, I would say the most important way would be understanding how to run an executive team and how to work [with] an executive team. I think coming into this role without that prior leadership experience… I mentioned that steep learning curve earlier, but it would have been pretty much vertical, trying to make that transition and understand how it works to be part of a team, and not only to be part of a team, but to lead a team, to be accountable for everything that goes wrong within a team, and to be able to share the successes and make sure everyone is brought along for the journey. So it’s through the leadership ability that I got from being in the Study Abroad Students Society [that I was able to fulfil this role].

And with all this experience and skills in mind, how are you currently finding being President of AUSA?

Don’t run guys. (chuckles)

Should I include that or…?

No, do not include that. (Author’s Note: As you can see dear reader, he took this back later) I love it, I honestly love it. Like, it’s such a unique experience to, at this age…obviously, I’m pretty elderly by university standards, I’m 23, but in terms of running an organisation of this size, with this national reach, really, it’s an incredible experience. I’m doing something that only a handful of other students in the country get to do, and the University of Auckland is obviously twice as big as the 2nd largest university, which makes this role particularly important on a national scale so… So, in terms of personal growth, it’s been a journey and I’m incredibly grateful that I’ve gotten to be President this year, I absolutely love it.

So, what made you run for this role in the first place?

(sighs) In my third year, I studied abroad at the University of Virginia, in the United States. Obviously, I’m from the United States, so I wasn’t going for that cultural experience so much as that university experience that you’re promised when you’ve lived in America, and I think some takeaways for that were how doable it is to make a campus that people are proud to go to that people want to bus in from across the city to attend, lectures that students are excited for, events that fill up right away… and I think I… when I came back to the University of Auckland, I noticed how many students felt disengaged with the community here on campus, how many students felt left behind or ignored, I really wanted to make this campus a place where everyone not only could come to, but wants to come to everyday. I really wanted to instil that sense of pride and spirit into the University of Auckland.

So you’re talking a lot about student engagement, so why President and not the Engagement VP role?

That’s a great question, I think President….obviously yes, I think that student engagement is important, I suppose to just stick on that tangent for one second and then I’ll divert a little bit, that also includes academic engagement. So that’s students coming onto campus, that is lectures which are engaging, you know working with those different academic committees to make sure that students do get the most out of their different classes that they’re taking, so that: a) they come to campus and b)the university holds its reputation globally. And on top of that, obviously if you’re not doing well, if you’re emotionally drained, if you’re struggling mentally, then again that university isn’t going to be the time of your life that so many students want it to be. And so I’d say in the centre of my campaign was that sort of engagement, but it was, it was broader than just running events, it was more ingrained in the university itself.

Well, that’s good to hear, and you definitely made good on your promises to increase AUSA visibility, to inject life back into campus, especially with Shads 2.0. However, it’s worth noting that we haven’t heard about any progress being made with the mental health services at uni, which was one of your key campaigning points, could you tell us what’s happening with that?

Absolutely. So, one of, just to reiterate, my points that I made during the election so often last year, like a lot of students are quite lost when it comes to accessing resources, whether that’s different health resources, mental health resources, financial resources at the university and across the city. So my initial… dream, let’s say, was to work with the Web Development Consultation Club and make a portal where students would be easily referred from the University of Auckland’s counsellors who oftentimes have to take on lots of students with lots of queries, and they could be referred to clinicians around the city who would have more capacity or more specific training to work on what they specifically need. Because of lots of legalities surrounding confidentiality agreements at the University and how that whole process works, we’ve transitioned to a portal whereby students are able to better understand the resources that are offered, at the University of Auckland, the city of Auckland and across the country in New Zealand.

So the way it’s gonna work is, it’s going to be sort of backwards to the traditional model, the traditional model being you search up the service you need, you then go through that and schedule your appointment. This way, you’re going to be able tofi lter based on what it is that you’re struggling with, so if it’s financial support, it’s gonna be sort of a triage system, where you go on the website, which is going to be linked through the AUSA website and hopefully the University will take it up as well, and you are able to fill out a little something, obviously it’s entirely anonymous, just to guide you to the resources that you specifically need. So let’s say you’re struggling with… homesickness, you would be able to navigate through that by saying what the issue is, rather than what the support is you need, so that we can then give you the support, rather than you having to find it on your own. Removing barriers to mental health access at the University.

Wow, that’s… that’s really good to hear, I’m sure a lot of students will find that really helpful, so when can we expect that to be rolled out by?

Yeah, so we’re aiming for the end of our term, so that would be the end of this year.

So…

The beginning of December this year.

Right.

Which is the hope. Obviously it does hinge on quite a lot, but the WDCC team that we’re working with… they’re obviously working on the project through the duration of the year, so it should be completed by that time.

So, on the off chance that… you don’t have it rolled out by then, do you hope that the incoming AUSA execs will take on that project?

I think it would be a huge missed opportunity if they didn’t, if we haven’t gotten it rolled out by then, which as I said, I expect we will, then it’ll be very close to being rolled out, it’ll be minimal work for the incoming executives, for what I think is going to have a massive effect on students across the university. So, again, it wouldn’t be a particularly difficult task to take on and I would expect that they would.

Do you think this will be something that would be replicated by student
associations across New Zealand as well?

To be entirely honest, I haven’t done a tonne of research into what other universities offer, or how good their services are at directing students. I would be able to make a guess that it’s quite similar to the University of Auckland, and I would hope that as they see students are more aware of these supports at our university that they would try to do similar things across the country.

Okay, how do you feel about the progress you’ve made so far in your
presidency, given that we’re coming up on the next AUSA election?

I feel great. I feel really good. I feel like we’re in a great spot, and I think that’s by no means just me, I would say my entire executive has made good on their promises, they’ve been putting in so much work behind the scenes that people really don’t get to see. I would say that for everything that people get to see us doing, or people get to hear about us doing, there’s tens or hundreds of hours of one or more executives behind the scenes writing… writing statements, drafting letters, and really putting in work to make sure that everything is done properly. Yeah, the executive has been absolutely wonderful, I’ve been so lucky this year to have that team, and I think that having such a cohesive unit has really enabled us to be able to put in this work, and I would say, looking at our Operations Plan, which you can find on our website at ausa.org.nz, looking at that Operations Plan that we’ve accomplished or are close to accomplishing most of what we’ve put on there. On an individual level, we’re looking at my campaign promises from last year, where you’ll see that, again, most of everything that I promised, and that is in my power as President has been completed or is close to completion.

I mean, you’ve done so much as President this year, do you plan on running again?

No. (chuckles) I finish up at the end of this year and right now the plan is going to Argentina for some time to re-learn Spanish.

Oooh.

So that’s pretty much the opposite of what I’m doing right now.

Why Argentina?

(laughs) We’re getting a little off topic.

(laughs) Sorry, no, yeah.

Ummm, I just love the dialect.

Okay, well, speaking of the elections for AUSA, considering what happened last year with the posts on Reddit claiming election fraud, do you have any plans or protective measures to prevent that from happening again this time around?

I think we have been quite proactive. As you’d expect, the executive aren’t the ones who run the elections. I think there would be some major conflicts of interest there, so that’s spearheaded by Mauricio, who is the head of our Student Voice team, here at AUSA, and anyone who is running will know that name because there is a mandatory session this year, [a] briefing session, again that has been brought in since last year. I think it’s just about getting the right information out to students so that they better understand the process, they better understand the roles they’re applying for, and we don’t run into similar issues from last year. Obviously, the claims made last year, nothing was substantiated by evidence, not to say that nothing happened. But, hopefully if people have complaints about this year’s election, they’ll be able to put those forward with names behind it so that they can be better investigated.

Well, do you have any advice for this election’s candidates?

Be yourself, be authentic. People call elections a popularity contest, and to an extent I think that would be true, but I also think that students recognise when someone is running a genuine campaign, when someone is not running just to stuff their CV. I think you have to know going into this role that your job for the next 12 months is fighting as hard as you can every single day for either your specific portfolio, or if you’re in the SLT, every student here at the University, and if that’s not something you care about, don’t do it, because, you won’t get anything done. Maybe you’ll get things done, but you won’t get things done for the right reason, and people notice those sorts of things, so I’d say be authentic, have fun. You know, I had fun campaigning last year. I thought it was so much fun making the videos, and draft policies, and work alongside students and clubs to try and figure out what students need. I thought it was a blast, and it can be quite draining if you don’t like that sort of thing, so make sure you’ve signed up for the right role, and for the right reasons.

And, to conclude, do you have any advice for students in general? Especially our first years?

I said this at all of the UOA 101 sessions to the incoming classes, I’ll repeat it again, it’s that you get what you put into the University of Auckland. In my second year, here at the university, I was incredibly disengaged from the campus. I took lots of my courses, sort of online from my flat you know, and had my friends, went to parties, all the stuff, but I didn’t feel connected, and I didn’t feel a sense of community when I came on to campus, and a big reason I didn’t feel that, was because I wasn’t contributing to that community: I wasn’t joining new clubs, I wasn’t joining club executives, I wasn’t reaching out to other classmates, I wasn’t talking to professors after class because I was passionate about the material, and you can go that route, and you can use this university as a stepping stone to your job, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. But I think that turns the University into… it turns your time here almost into a means to an end that, that end being your diploma, your degree, whatever credentials you graduate with, when I think it can be an end in itself and it can be the most special few years of your life, as I’ve gotten these past two years. Really putting myself out there, meeting new people, taking on new challenges. So yeah, put in that work behind the scenes if you want to get something out of university other than just a degree.

All right, well, thank you so much for sitting down and doing this interview with me.

Yeah, thank you.