Ivan Fan ’14 says he spent a substantial part of the past school year asking students one question: “If there’s one thing you could change or improve about Yale, what would it be?”

A Yale College Council associate and Freshman Class Council representative from Morse College, Fan is running for Vice President of the YCC, and said his personable nature and previous experience helped him build his platform. If elected, Fan said he hopes to create a student-run website to help students access tutoring services provided by the University, increase Yale Transit services and lengthen dining hall hours.

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Alex Fisher ’14, Fan’s campaign manager, said that Fan’s personable nature is one of his greatest strengths.

“He’s the type of person who doesn’t just think it’s important that people know his name, but that he knows theirs too,” he said.

Fan said he would continue to work on key YCC initiatives from this year such as restructuring mental health services and creating certificates to recognize graduating seniors who attain a high level of proficiency in a foreign language. Current YCC Vice President Annie Shi ’12 has led both of those projects this year, and said Fan has not worked with her on them. She added that there is still much to be done in both areas, and that the new YCC Executive Board will need to survey faculty and students to gather evidence in favor of the reform and certificates.

Many of Fan’s ideas have grown out of his dedication to getting to know his classmates, he said. Conversations with other students inspired him to propose a website that would compile a list of academic tutoring resources as part of his platform, he said, adding that he thinks the website would be of particular use to freshmen.

Fan said he would use his position as vice president to encourage the YCC to work more closely with other groups on campus. For example, he said he would partner with the Yale Political Union to bring more interesting speakers to campus.

Having worked on the FCC, Fan said he would be well-prepared to work closely with the YCC’s subsidiaries, such as FCC, the Sophomore Class Council and the Junior Class Council.

Andrew Kahn ’14, one of Fan’s suitemates, said Fan has the right personality for student government. He said that Fan was always very helpful in “building consensus” whenever he and his other suitemates met to discuss issues affecting the suite.

“You can tell he’s a good friend when he’s always willing to help me put a fitted sheet on my mattress,” Kahn said.

In high school, Fan was the president of a non-profit that worked for education reform in his hometown of Appleton, Wis.