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Muhammad Faisal Bin Shahabudeen
Candidate for
President (S)
Mechanical Engineering Y2
"I’ll do the work, you bring the passion. It’s a group project here and you’re getting an easy A."
How to reach me?
Email: mbs2009@hw.ac.uk
My Biography
Born in Jordan, and having grown up in multiple countries, I’ve been moving around for a lot of my life. Going to different schools, I have an understanding of what it’s like to be thrown into different cultures. Within these schools, I’ve led and been part of countless events and clubs, ranging from international relations to basketball. With the wide variety of experiences and skill sets that I’ve been able to acquire in my 19 years of life, I aim for the next year of my life to be just and interesting and engaging as the last (but I’d need your help).
My Manifesto
Passion.
As President, my main ambition is to increase the passion and community spirit within the Malaysian campus. I feel strongly that the most vital next step to increasing the quality of experience of all students is to cultivate a more vibrant and engaged atmosphere.
Coming from leadership positions in multiple clubs, participation and engagement is frequently one of the most challenging issues to solve. Getting students to come to events and take part in activities that would benefi t them should not be a massive hurdle to cross for clubs and organizing committees.
Am I saying that there is no passion in our university? Definitely not, there is quite clearly an abundance of passion throughout every corner and within every student we have. However, it has to be emphasized. It has to be fostered. We, not just HWUMSA, but me and you, need to do our part to create an atmosphere where the underlying passion can thrive into full-bloom.
Events such as International Cultural Night and Watt A Night should not be rare occasions, they should be amongst a list of large and small-scale festive activities without taking away from how special each one is. Watt Games, and sports in general, should be supported profusely by HWUMSA and the student body as the athletes that play in them are representatives for all of us. Clubs should be rewarded and incentivized to foster higher engagement and to remain active in both the short and long-term.
If you have any ideas as well that could help cultivate passion in our university, I’d want to hear them and consider them.
However, for the most part, you just show up and bring your passion. As long as I’ve made it as easy as possible to do that for you, I’d be happy, and so would you.
What motivated me to nominate myself?
Coming from a diverse background and encountering a wide variety of cultures and atmospheres, I’ve been able to collect experiences that have shaped my outlook on university life, both academic and non-academic. Consequently, I am able to mix-and-match different ideas on what makes HWUM a great university and ways in which we can all improve together, in a way that benefits all of us.
Thus, throughout the course of my degree, I’ve gotten the gist of the events and aspects of studying at HWUM that make it engaging and productive for most students. I’ve also noted aspects that the student body has not exactly appreciated in the past and would preferably like to see changed.
Therefore, with the combination of experiences I’ve cultivated and my own experience and understanding of the general university life of a HWUM student, I always have ideas pop into my head on how to rectify certain issues and emphasize past successes.
In other words, my motivation is simple. I know that if I want my juniors to have a more fulfilling and interesting experience throughout their degree, and access to even more opportunities for fun and professional advancement, I have the skillset and the will to see to it, but most importantly, I’ve got the passion to do it.
My top three priorities
Within my part-time capacity as your President, my top priorities would be:
Cultivating Community Spirit Through Sports Initiatives
Unifying the official sports teams within HWUM - Creating a solidified strong image of all sporting teams/clubs to represent all of us
Increasing the scale of sporting events - Aiding in the event management and coordination of sporting events to increase the scale and quality of sporting events
Increasing the outreach of clubs, teams, and athletes - Giving more spaces for clubs and athletes to be featured and promoted for their sporting efforts
Creating opportunities for community engagement - Establishing standard merchandise and increasing promotion for sporting events to garner larger audiences
Assisting Clubs In Reaching Their Full Potential
Providing incentives for club participation and effort - Giving rewards to clubs that demonstrate a vested interest in growing and staying active
Standardizing bookkeeping - Establishing standard templates and measures of financial bookkeeping and event management to aid struggling clubs
Identifying common problem areas - Working closely with clubs to determine common challenges and finding solutions that are both equitable and fair
Creating Chances To Improve Your Well-Being
Establishing forums for YOU - Creating more platforms for you to voice out your opinions and issues that face the general student body
Pushing for more communal and festive events - International Cultural Night is probably the most highly anticipated event of the year, what if there were more events like it?
Increasing the access to general facilities - Negotiating agreements that provides access to more facilities such as mental-health counseling or a gym
What would I bring to the role?
Perspective.
My most significant and unique contribution to being the HWUMSA President would be my special outlook onto the university. During my part-time term, I would also be a student. I would be undergoing the same experience as all of you. I would have a great time with my friends at Watt A Night. I would
deal with the plug sockets at 365 malfunctioning when I’m rushing an assignment. I would have to wait an extra hour because I missed the bus on the way to university.
Being the first part-time president affords me a certain perspective that would only be possible in my position. This means that I would have as much incentive to solve your problems, since I would be facing them too. I would like to give you amazing events, since I’d be attending them as well. Anything that you’d be experiencing, I’d be experiencing as well.
Therefore, during my presidency, we’d be a team that’s dedicated to ensuring that we both get the best out of HWUM as we can. That’s a contribution that I’m in the best position to make.