Who I talked to

Amelia Fong

Who is she?

She is the newly elected Vice President of Public Relations for Student Union executive board. Currently, she is the Academic Affairs Chairperson for SU Senate. A sophomore in the Sam Fox School of Art and Design with a second major in Leadership and Strategic Management, she brings an artistic edge to this highly professional body.

Courtesy of Amelia Fong

Why should I care?

She is the only woman on executive board this year. Actually—she’s the only woman who ran. Out of the eleven candidates vying for a coveted executive position, ten of them were men. At the Student Life moderated debate this past Friday, this fact became shockingly apparent to her: “[Debate moderator] Megan [Magray] was gathering everyone around her and I realized that I was the only woman surrounded by men in suits, and I had never worked in an environment like that.” Another candidate actually made reference to her gender identity in his call for greater diversity, dragging her womanhood into the spotlight.

What we talked about

Gender diversity in Student Union. Before understanding the underrepresentation of women on SU executive, she suggested, we first have to look at Student Union as a whole: “Senate, being the advocacy branch, is very diverse…If you look at treasury, there tends to be slightly more men than women, but that’s because treasury typically attracts economics or finance majors that within themselves are very male-dominated fields.”

So what’s the problem?

The funnel effect. Fong identified why there is a lack of women applying for executive board: “If you look at the candidates, the majority of them already have experience on SU, so it’s kind of like a funnel…We first need to look at how many women there are in SU as a whole and what it’s like for them to get into leadership positions.”

What’s her plan?

Luckily, Fong is very positive looking to the future. “I definitely want to start talking to people first about their experiences as women, because I feel like that’s something we’ve never really looked into…I’m really personally interested in looking into it.” She also recognizes that the best source of getting more women on executive board is tapping into the wonderful women who surround her in SU already: “If I look at my senators, most of them are women and very, very strong women. Taking a leadership position—there’s nothing stopping them.”

Looking forward for Fong

Like she said, Fong is diving into unchartered territory: “In all of my exec boards, I would say that, at the very least, the gender ratio is equal, if not more women than men, and so [SU executive board] is definitely a new experience for me. I can’t say how it’s going to be different or even difficult, but I’m hoping that the [executive board] that I work with are the people I know personally, so it’s easier.”

Editor’s note: Megan Magray is the editor-in-chief of Student Life. She served as a moderator for the Student Union debates alongside editors Noah Jodice and Noa Yadidi.