Pablo Avaria-Jimenez: candidate profile and interview
Pulp sits down with the USU Board hopefuls.
Faction: Libdependent
Slogan: Pablo’s Here
Colour: Neon green
Manager: Self-managed
Degree: Arts (Politics and International Relations) III
Quiz score: 38%, 7th out of 10
Pablo Avaria-Jimenez scored 38% in the Pulp quiz with considerable gaps in his knowledge across all categories. Avaria-Jimenez is running for board to offer a balance between “student’s voice” and “what the USU wants”.
Whilst Avaria-Jimenez is running as a Liberal, he claims that he isn’t “supported by them in the campus” and expressed his backing behind an apolitical USU board. His policies are seemingly apolitical. He proposes a revived Manning bar (a “Marly club vibe”), more salad options at Courtyard Cafe and the promotion of “more campus life”.
Avaria-Jimenez has not made an overly strong stance on the matter of CathSoc’s ableist lifeweek discussions, stating that whilst he supports freedom of speech, “things like that should get approval [from the USU] first”. Despite this, he does see the USU Board as playing an important political role in lobbying the government in the interests of International students, such as on behalf of those currently locked out of the country.
Avaria-Jimenez has also struggled to demonstrate a sufficient understanding of campus events and news, being unable to correctly identify the current SRC president (or that there was a current elected president at all), or what the Enviro Collective and Education Action Group have recently been advocating for. When asked for clarification as to why he didn’t know of the SRC president, he said that “I’ve actually had a really bad experience with the SRC [in first year] I got bullied a lot by them… so I choose to distance myself from the everything of the SRC.”
His biggest criticism of the USU is that they didn’t do enough promotional work. Considering left wing candidates have expressed a concern with what they perceive as the growing corporatization of the USU, if elected to board, Avaria-Jimenez will face the challenge of negotiating his priorities with those that have quite different visions.
Moreover, Despite Avaria-Jimenez’s personal experiences with the SRC - troubling as they may be for him - he may also need to grapple with the fact that working on the USU board requires collaboration with a range of other student bodies.
In saying that, Avaria-Jimenez appears to be a generally likeable character who is evidently happy to work with all of the candidates. He said that Telita, Nick, Cole, David and Isla are all “really sweet”
Voting opens 9:00am May 17 and closes 5:00pm May 21. Voting is exclusive to USU members, who will be sent an email to submit their vote. Sign up here.
Watch the full interview below.
Article by Emily Graetz.