Caerus

The time has come- over the next two days, elections for positions across our Caerus board will be in full swing. In total, we have a whopping eleven candidates competing for no less than six positions. And, what’s more, who will emerge victorious is all down to you. To give you a brief idea about all of the candidates, Slash decided to actually do its job for once, and sent some of its finest reporters down to the candidate presentation evening last night, to check out what was going on.

Chair

The first, and probably most talked-about position is of course the role of Chair. Though Sush(ane) may or may not have wanted to stay in office for one more year, he was humble enough to gracefully step aside, and allow two fresh-faced first years to compete for his old position.

The first competitor is Johannes, and with his creatively-designed poster he’s sure to make a good first impression on voters. But what can he bring to Caerus besides his graphic design skills? Since Johannes came to UCG, he has proven himself to be active in the community, mostly by becoming chair of Slash (although of course he’s had no influence over what I write about him here). In his short introduction speech, he made it clear that he wanted to focus on creating an inclusive and joyful university environment.

While being interviewed by us, he stayed calm and critical. When asked about his preferences between apples and oranges, Johannes was very quick to reveal his inherent love for apples, reminiscing about the apple tree close to his childhood home. He seemed more critical when asked if he would rather be dropped into a desert or into the North Pole, arguing that the desert would be more desirable, since he did not particularly feel like freezing to death all that much.

Our other candidate in the race for chair is Jesse. Jesse seemed very prepared for the task of chair. He started of his speech in a beautifully Dutch manner, saying he wants to get the best out of Caerus, because after all, he did pay 40 euros to join. He then went on to explain that he wanted to focus on making sure Caerus is a place where people can be themselves and grow as individuals. Jesse has shown he can be direct when needed, and while interviewing him he always had an answer ready within seconds.

When asked if he would prefer to have an extra toe or an extra finger, Jesse opted for the latter without any hesitation. He clarified it would be way more useful, plus with an extra toe, Jesse figured balancing would be more difficult. In a similarly quick fashion, he chose real plants over fake ones, something that shouldn’t come as a big surprise from someone who is very involved with the sustainability of Caerus.

Both candidates seemed very well-prepared to become the face of our student organisation, so therefore it’s safe to say that you can’t really go wrong in this battle of the two Js. In the words of one observer this evening: “Personally I am not very organised in my life, so applying for the board is not really something for me. You need people who are very organised  and both Jesse and Johannes are exactly that, so we should fine.”

Secretary

Managed to make a decision? Then let’s move on to another hotly-contested position: the role of secretary.

Amy started by highlighting her love of colour coding, and love for organisation in general. She wanted to “keep Caerus in check in a less fun way”. Amy has had quite a bit of previous experience when it comes to planning and being secretary for other organisations, showing that she’s got what it takes to tackle the position of Caerus Secretary. 

When asked, Amy admitted she would choose fake plants over real plants, since most of her real plants seem to have a tendency to die of neglect. She also revealed in our talk that she’d rather take on one horse-sized duck, than 100 duck-sized horses, since the sheer quantity of tiny horses was enough for her to choose the other option.

Ariadni came across as soft-spoken but very thoughtful. In her speech she focussed on her passion to make Caerus more sustainable and environmentally friendly. She also wanted to stress the importance of mental health awareness, and maintaining a good balance between academic and personal life. Ariadni would rather drink green tea than Earl Grey she told us. Besides this, she could see some use in having an extra finger instead of having an extra toe. She was also very fast when given the choice between a black swan or a pink elephant, by quickly opting for the latter option.

Treasurer

For this position, competition was narrowed down to only one candidate, Bethany. With a wonderful pun on her poster, Bethany is sure to repreCENT our committee well when it comes to the tricky subject of finances. With her promise to ensure a good financial record, I think it will be very difficult for anyone to beat her to this position. Bethany would prefer to be dropped off in the North Pole, because of her love for polar bears. When asked if this love would increase her chances of survival, she said it probably wouldn’t make much of a difference, but since both the desert and the North Pole are very harsh environments, she’d at least rather go to a place with cool animals. Bethany also revealed she’d take oranges over apples in our conversation.

Committee Affairs Officer

The CAO position is the most competitive position this year, with 5 candidates fighting over 2 roles. But out of the 5, only one decided to apply for the academic CAO position, so, as it transpires, her odds of winning are actually pretty high.

Kaja has been chair of Orbis this year, our academic committee. Therefore this job would be right up her alley since she does have a tonne of experience when it comes to academic organisation.

For the Social CAO position, there seemed to be a lot more interest, with four candidates battling for one single spot. The first candidate for this position is Zack, a guy who says he really wants to keep Caerus on track. In his speech, Zack said he was a dedicated guy who could get stuff done. If Zack would have to choose between fake or real plants, he’d go for fake ones, mostly because he already has two of them in his room.

Next up, we have Elisabeth competing for the Social CAO. Elisabeth wants to emphasise the “family-like” atmosphere that exists in our organisation. Besides this, she is also driven to expand our “bubble” and collaborate with other UC’s. Elisabeth has been treasurer for the intro week committee this year which gives her some Caerus experience already. She prefers to have a real plant in her room over having a fake one because a real one is more natural. Additionally, she seems to enjoy green tea more than earl grey. When she was asked to choose between oranges and apples however, she admitted she does not like fruits and would rather opt for vegetables.

Our third contestant for this CAO position is “Our very own” Moritz (also here, he does not have any influence on what is written in this article). In his presentation, Moritz started off very strong, forgetting the name of the position he is competing for. He then continued saying he wants to see Caerus grow and have more member involvement in our organisation. Moritz gave a confident impression and seems pretty dedicated to make Caerus greater. Moritz would prefer a pink elephant over a black swan, all because of the movie Dumbo. Besides this, he told us he likes oranges a lot more than apples; “All apples are shit, except the computers.” When asks if he would rather fight a horse-sized duck or 100 duck-sized horses, he just answered that he would be very interested to see a duck as big as a horse, so he would probably choose that.

Last but not least, for the position of social CAO, we have Sara. Sara has played a lot of sports in her life, which has taught her to be very determined and persevering when needed. This last year she was part of UCGo, and got familiar with the struggles and issues that can arise in a committee. Therefore she says she now knows better how to cope with these issues when they come up. Sara would rather have an extra toe than an extra finger since an extra toe can just be in your shoe without people seeing it. Besides this, she likes Earl Grey tea more than green tea.

External Affairs Officer

For this last position, Eva is the only candidate. In her speech, she told us she wanted to let people outside of our college know what UCG is. This is something I still struggle with when talking to family, but hopefully, she can do this better than me then.  The main goal of Eva is to provide our members with good career opportunities next year. After playing a vital role in organising the Batavierenrace this year, Eva has shown she doesn’t back down from some organisational challenge. For the same reason as Sara, Eva would rather have an extra toe. Besides, she said, she wouldn’t find any good use for a sixth finger anyway. She’d also much rather fight 100 duck-sized horses than a single duck-sized horse because ducks scare her a bit.

//Olle

These were all the candidates from our perspective, but for a more informed summary made by the current board you can always go to our website and check out the document on all our candidates there. Anyway, hopefully, you are now a tiny bit more informed for this upcoming election, enjoy voting!