GISA Spring Election 2025 Candidate Profiles: Vayunamu Bawa for GISA President

In conversation with Vayunamu J. Bawa, International Relations/Political Science 1st Year.

Q. What makes you the ideal candidate for your role, and how do you believe your background will help you succeed in this position?

I believe I’m the ideal candidate for GISA President because I’m friendly and firm, calm and strong-willed. I work hard at anything I do, give 110%, and I always get results. While I know how to balance the fine details with the big picture, I naturally lean towards big-picture thinking. Looking at things with a wide view helps to determine priorities, keep up momentum, and remain focused on the main mission and purpose of any project. This has helped me a lot in my life as I have moved around a lot and experienced a lot of cultures and ways of life. It has also helped as I am currently in a career change moving from the media world back into the world of IR where I started my studies. What has kept me grounded is the knowledge of who I am and my purpose in life, which is to help people build and thrive in community. 

I’m excited at the potential of what can be achieved in this position but it’s also really important to me to be voted by you all so I recognize how serious the responsibility is. The position of the President is to be the link between the students, the administration, and the faculty, to have your hand in everything, to always be in the know, and to always be ready–I believe that I’m able to handle this. My life experiences have taught me and continue to teach me a lot. They make me confident today that I can succeed in this position so I’m looking forward to what we can do together!

Q. How do you plan to approach the role in a way that ensures the smooth running of GISA’s operations and fosters a collaborative atmosphere?

My approach to the role would be to serve as an anchor for the board. Every board member is in charge of something specific, so it’s necessary to have a force to balance everything and keep the ship moving. I believe that a leader is as good as their team, so an effective board that collaborates well is crucial for me. I plan to achieve this by investing in team-building activities. A lot of times, people in these kinds of settings struggle with maintaining the right atmosphere because they only interact in tense situations. If the only time you talk to someone is when you argue, you will see them as intolerable. However, if you spend time together outside of formal settings and get to know each other, when you come to a meeting you assume good intentions regardless of whether you agree on something or not. During my time in my undergrad senate, people knew that I would always speak up for what I believed in, and whether they agreed or not, they never took it in bad faith because I had genuine relationships with everyone outside of the senate room. 

Q. What past experiences have prepared you for the challenges of this role, and how will you use these experiences to improve GISA’s  efficiency?

As an undergraduate student, I served in the student government for two years. I was elected as an Academic Senator for the College of Arts and Sciences and then appointed internally as a Committee Chair. I led the Student Organizations Committee and then the Inclusion and Diversity Committee. During this time, I had to take on issues not just with the student population but within the student government association itself. One student issue involved amplifying the cause of the indigenous student organization which demanded a renaming of various campus buildings. This was a cause some of us worked closely on and the names were eventually changed the semester after I graduated. This taught me that change might take time but it’s worth it. For GISA, short and long term thinking will be crucial for efficiency.

On the other hand, an internal issue we faced was frequent deadlock with decision-making. This taught me that the president of a student association is first and foremost a servant leader and a steward–basically a manager and a guide. The president takes a wide view to put all things into perspective, balancing the stances of the student population, the administration, and faculty. To be clear, the student body gives the GISA President the mandate so I believe that that’s the priority, but it’s very important to have solid relations with all involved. 

Q. If elected, what would be your primary goal and how would you ensure its successful implementation during your tenure?

My primary goal would be to improve student relations with the Institute. For me, this is more than Direction or the administration but the spirit of the Institute itself, from the various offices/sections within it to the physical campus. I have heard a lot of mistrust and dissatisfaction from students and alumni, and I truly believe this can be remedied so that’s what I would work towards. The current GISA board has made progress in this, which is huge, and I hope I can take us further and not backward. Three of the approaches I would take towards this involve campus space, the curriculum, and administrative support. 

The Master’s forum outlined that we need to push for more proactive administrative support, where staff can present necessary information to students on things like filing taxes and obtaining work authorization instead of waiting for us to ask. I would meet with Student Services and Student Wellbeing to create a list of these things on a one-year timeline so it can be useful for planning ahead. On more usable campus space, the points that need pushing for the coming year are keeping the cafeteria open outside of the kitchen’s hours, improving the Fab and PCR, and setting up a new multi-purpose room and new general prayer room. I can do this by sitting with the offices involved and figuring out ways beyond the barriers that stand in the way. This could be fundraising for the extra fixtures, utilities, and cleaning services that will be needed to set up and improve these spaces. Decolonizing the curriculum is a major issue for a lot of students. We don’t feel like the class material represents our complex diversity as it should, and this shouldn’t be the case. I would kick off the Decolonial Working Group that has been agreed upon this semester and work with students, class reps, faculty, and applicable initiatives to create a list of topics, concepts, and regions that students want to discuss but aren’t being assigned. We can also set up workshops on talking to professors to make suggestions based on your discipline and program. 

Q. How do you plan to make GISA more accessible and transparent for students, particularly when it comes to administrative processes and decision-making?

I believe that interactive, human-centered approaches featuring GISA board members can help with this. We get a lot of emails and a lot of texts, but more accessibility can be generated through office hours and social media content. GISA has been making active video content on social media, and everyone’s office hours are currently public and in open spaces, which is great. It would also be great to have floating office hours where GISA board members attend initiative events and meetings to receive and/or share new information. Of course, GISA is already present in initiatives as we are all students but it would go a long way to present ourselves in that capacity from time to time. It could also help to choose some achievements of these office hours to share online. People are always moved by testimonials and I think they will always be useful to show what GISA is doing in collaboration with other students. Even in the case of a project that hasn’t been successful or is taking too long to conclude, I know that students would appreciate receiving such reports.

Q.What are three core values you bring to your role?

Empathy – My time is your time and your feelings are my feelings.

Resilience – Fall seven times, rise eight.

Flexibility – While I have my goals, and students would also have goals for the school year, I know that unplanned things come up all the time which can lead to emergency meetings and actions.

Q. Lastly, a few creative ways or plans of action (chance to do something different )

First is horizontal networking events. We are always thinking of how to network vertically with someone far along in their career, who is where we would like to be in 10 or 30 years. However, we have a wealth of experience between ourselves that we might never know about. I meet new people every week who have done really interesting things in their lives so far! These events will be designed for us to learn from our peers. Maybe someone has previous work experience in a career you’re curious about or planning to transition into. Maybe they’re from a city you’ve always wanted to work in. Maybe you share a very specific hobby. These horizontal networking events won’t cost much to set up but they would provide a lot of value.

Second, I would work on ways to incentivize more initiative collaboration. It’s being done now but we can grow a lot more in this. When we host events together, we can strengthen turnout and participation. GISA office hours can also be hosted together. I envision a few people on the board having joint office hours when there’s a need to address layered, specific, individual issues. 

Lastly, I’m excited about creating new ways to meet and gather on campus. When the weather is great, I would have office hours outside and encourage groups to meet outside as well to feel some relief from their hectic schedule. Even now as you read this, there are a few weeks left of the Spring semester so something you can try is to take your initiative board meeting or group project meeting outside through the back where the sun and grass are.