Candid(ates) Talk - Alex Bevington

President of the Physical Geography Student Association, and candidate for the Senate and the BOA for Science, Alex Bevington is loving it all.

SFUOblog: We`re still in the University Centre couch lounge and my guest is BOA candidate Alex Bevington...

Alex Bevington: Thank you.

SFUOblog: And you put on a good show at 1848 last night!

Alex Bevington: Thank you very much, thank you very much. I love it.

SFUOblog: So... You are not a one-trick pony. You are a science student,

Alex Bevington: I am.

SFUOblog: ...you play bass guitar,...

Alex Bevington: I do.

SFUOblog: ...and you're running for student politics.

Alex Bevington: I am, I am. The three fundamental truths about Alex Bevington.

SFUOblog: Is there anything else that's fundamental about you?

Alex Bevington: I'm a curious guy. I like all kinds of stuff. Lots of music, lots of reading, lots of travelling. I travelled a lot. I love outdoors, physical activity, stuff like that, camping. Maps, I'm obsessed with maps. I just came out of a GIS course, which is computer mapping, and, uh... I feel pretty good right now.

SFUOblog: How'd that... That's the best way to feel after a course

Alex Bevington: (Laughs) Yah.

SFUOblog: So, you are running for the BOA.

Alex Bevington: And the senate.

SFUOblog: AND the senate, sorry.

Both for the faculty of science.

SFUOblog: And you are encouraging people to vote for you, obviously.

Alex Bevington: Yah... I'm doing it mostly to vote and most to get informed, because I find that a lot... The worst thing that can happen... I just put a post up on my blog, about five minutes ago, abevington.ca (laughs), about how, like, the worst thing that you can possibly do is have an uninformed vote. That violates the fundamentals of democracy. So I would just love people to get informed: read the blogs, watch the videos, read the newspapers, talk to the candidates, get informed. So if people want to vote for me, that's wonderful. I think it's a great idea.

SFUOblog: Yah, okay. So. When it comes to this campaigning, you work to inform people, but for some reason you also pay attention to student media. Why is that?

Alex Bevington: Why is that? I think it's... I think student media is coming from students, so it's opinions from students who are not necessarily voting for me, but they are influenced by the same thing I'm influenced by. So if I were to just blindly campaign without paying attention to any of these things, then I think I'd be lacking a big part of the perception of the candidates. You know, I'd be lacking who's going where, and doing what kind of campaign, and whose poster got ripped down. Which to some extent, you could argue, is completely useless for my campaign, but, it keeps me informed. And I think the better I'm informed...(chuckles) He's laughing at me.

SFUOblog: Serge Miville is laughing as he packs up to go to CHUO.

Alex Bevington: This is like blogger central area. I feel like I walked into a Mission: Impossible scene.

Serge Miville: We are the source of every single information that comes out. We control everything.

SFUOblog: Well, I don't know if anyone will hear that, and hopefully it won't pick up on the microphone. Um... What do you think is the most pressing issue for science right now?

Alex Bevington: For science? I think the most pressing issue is probably inter-faculty relations. Because, unfortunately, for some reason, the faculty of science has kind of a... Not a bad rap. I don't know. A lot of people, it's... Not very interested in campus politics, because they're not really, they don't see it everyday. They don't see. Science is a bit neglected in that way. But in science, you can approach it a certain way that science students can understand that campus politics do matter for science students. I've got a couple articles on my blog about "when scientists get political," that's the title, and I try to keep a theme. Politics are fundamental to science, like, I think that we really need to have properly researched information using scientific methods, you know? I think it's, so, inter-faculty relations. That's definitely the most important.

SFUOblog: I don't have any more time, but I'm going to ask you if you could describe Wassim Garzouis in three words, what would they be?

Alex Bevington: Wassim Garzouzi. Wassim Garzouzi is a gentleman of character.

SFUOblog: Gentleman of character. Okay. Thanks.

Alex Bevington: Thanks