In this year’s Students’ Union (SU) general election, three candidates are running for two positions for the Board of Governors, senate representatives. The U of C Senate is comprised of members from the general public, alumni, students and employed educators and academics who bridge the gap between the university and the wider community. The senate representatives meet with the senate to voice student concerns.
Amber Quo chose not to interview with the Gauntlet, so here’s what the students can expect based on her platform.
Quo acknowledges that the student population doesn’t know about the Senate and its procedures and builds on her experience within non-SU student body leadership to bridge the gap. The foundation of her platform is amplifying student voices by increasing transparency on senate processes at the faculty level. However, we are unsure as to what methods of communication will be employed for this process. She goes on to propose open forums for students to voice their opinions directly, attempting to bridge the gap between the decision-making body of the Senate and the student voice.
Quo also writes that she plans on advocating for the Chancellor’s scholarship eligibility criteria to include continuing students, pushing for more student opportunities. She also intends to work on networking events to foster a proper mentorship system with Senators and the broader community for students’ career advancement. We appreciate her making students a priority.
While she misses some details on her platform points, Quo understands the role of senate representative well enough and has the right experiences to be an able candidate to represent the student body. Her strength lies in understanding the portfolio’s limitations and opportunities that come with it.
Uday Singh Sandhu
Uday Singh Sandhu is a third-year finance student who currently serves as the Haskayne representative in the SLC. Sandhu chose not to interview with the Gauntlet, so here’s what we can tell from his platform.
Sandhu builds his platform on his struggles as an international student lacking mental health support, facing systematic inequities and the overall lack of opportunity. His first point cites improving current mental health services available to students although without any tangible propositions to his plans.
Sandhu also proposes advocating for expanding the Propel Business Project to some graduate and undergraduate programs, failing to further explain what programs he has in mind. Propel is a Haskayne-based program to provide co-op and work experience to students, Sandhu’s experience as Haskayne representative in the SLC showcases his understanding of available opportunities. However, the Senate is focused on all students, so this platform point is misaligned with the role he is applying for.
Sandhu’s strength is putting transparency and student empowerment at the core of his platform. He plans on advocating for a more transparent scholarship and bursary process, increasing student funding, and implementing systematic changes against food insecurity, among others. .
Sandhu’s experience as a Haskayne representative has showcased his ability to meet long-term goals. With more clarity and details in his ideas and a greater alignment with the role, Sandhu could serve as a potential Senate representative.
Laiba Nasir is running as Student-at-Large in the University of Calgary’s Senate. Her platform’s focal points are transparency, accountability and student engagement.
As a candidate, Nasir is pursuing a change in Senate operations as she recognizes the apparent faults and gaps with current Senate occupations. If voted into the Senate, Nasir is committed to ensuring students understand how governance affects them.
“I think currently there’s quite a big gap between Senate and students…they’re not doing things like having transparency within their meetings, they’re not summarizing their meeting minutes, they’re not telling people what they’re voting for, what the new initiatives are and I think those are things that are like incredibly important,” said Nasir in an interview with the Gauntlet.
Nasir emphasizes the lack of communication between the Senate and students, as she pledges to deliver Senate meetings in clear language.
“I really want to take Senate meeting notes and take them very thoroughly and then be able to put them into accessible language because they use a lot of jargon and they use a lot of words that don’t actually mean anything,” explained Nasir.
Nasir also proposes open communication methods that encourage students to become involved such as providing incentives for forums, surveys or taking advantage of digital platforms.
“Holding things like forums sometimes doesn’t work because students have no incentive to come out to these forums and talk to you about what’s happening. So things like Discord servers that are more informal forms of communication, you have a Google form or you have some way that they can communicate. or just having an email out there so that when students do actually want to talk to you,” said Nasir.
Nasir’s commitment to creating a more understandable and student-centred Senate operation makes her a candidate with high potential.
“I want to tell students not to worry about not understanding Senate because when they vote me in, I will make sure that it’s understandable,” said Nasir.
All undergraduate students may vote on their ballot YES or NO for up to two candidates for SENATE REPRESENTATIVE or ABSTAIN from voting.