What are the DSU’s goals for the year?

The Dalhousie Student Union’s executive team has set goals for the academic year, focusing on reconnecting students with the union and addressing campus and community concerns. 

The president and three vice-presidents presented their goals for the fall and winter terms to the DSU’s council on Sept. 14, along with metrics to evaluate if they achieve them. 

President Anjali Seshadri: increased DSU visibility, sexualized violence policy

President Anjali Seshadri’s main fall goal is to make the union’s representatives visible and recognizable to students via greater engagement through campus events, social media and connections with student societies. 

To increase her own visibility, Seshadri plans to attend one society event a week until winter break, allowing herself to miss up to three weeks. She plans to attend an event by a society representing a marginalized community every month.

Seshadri is also focused on developing an ad hoc committee to produce a DSU sexualized violence policy. Seshadri says the policy will be informed by research and student consultations, and hopes to present her work to council for adoption by March 2027.

“This is one of the ways in which we can really fight for students,” says Seshadri in an interview with the Dalhousie Gazette.   

Seshadri’s winter goal is to build continuity for the union by formalizing practices and responsibilities for future executive teams.

The plan also includes strengthening executive transitions through hands-on training, improving collaboration between executives and DSU offices and making the board of governors caucus more proactive in advocating for student priorities.

VP finance and operations Anton Kredl: financial transparency

Anton Kredl, vice-president of finance and operations, plans to create a breakdown of the roughly $82 in mandatory DSU fees students pay. The goal is to make it clear where students’ money goes, and what services and organizations their fees support. 

“We at the DSU have not successfully communicated a baseline breakdown of our fees and what they mean for students,” he said in an email to the Dalhousie Gazette.  “I don’t just want to provide a breakdown of student fees; I also want to explain what those abstract parts of the budget actually mean in practice and what they ultimately fund.”

Kredl also plans to create new training materials and a written guide to address common questions and mistakes made by society treasurers. In his email, he said the materials would improve communication between the DSU and societies, as well as reduce delays in distributing levy fees. 

VP academic and external Orpy Dey: advocate for housing, document advocacy work

Orpy Dey, vice-president academic and external, plans to conduct a student housing consultation and use the findings to develop a policy report with recommendations for Dalhousie University, the HRM and the provincial government.

In an email to the Gazette, Dey said that the main housing concern the DSU hears about is affordability, but students also raise concerns around fixed-term leases, renters’ rights, housing quality and “simply not knowing where to go when something goes wrong with their tenancy.” 

The DSU is a member of the Halifax Student Alliance, a coalition of three student unions, which Dey wants to use to explore a formal recurring model for student representation in municipal discussions. 

Related: Multi-university student coalition reignites to advocate for students at city hall

“Students should have a recurring way to participate in municipal conversations that directly affect them,” Dey said. 

In the winter, Dey plans to focus on making the union’s advocacy work easier to carry into future executive terms. She plans to develop a transition manual documenting key relationships and decisions, and publish a year-end advocacy report evaluating progress on the DSU’s advocacy.

VP internal Suha Manal: review societies’ constitutions, improve societies’ email IT process

Vice-president internal Suha Manal’s fall goal is to work with Dalhousie IT Services to make the NetID application process more consistent and reduce back-and-forth for societies to get Dal emails.

In the winter, she wants to review and publish society constitutions, which she says can make society decision-making more transparent and accountable. 

“Students should be able to know who qualifies as a member, what decision-making rights members have, how elections operate, and what responsibilities executives hold,” Manal wrote in an email to the Gazette.

Her review found that some large societies that receive significant student funding lacked sufficiently detailed governance structures. 

Manal said the council’s accountability should “extend beyond the goals we formally set at the beginning of our terms,” and that executives should remain responsive to student concerns throughout the year.

The executives said they plan to provide updates through DSU communication channels and use their published goals as accountability benchmarks.