This year there are five Dalhousie Student Union Presidential candidates ranging in political experience, ideas on important issues and what they were studying at Dalhousie University.
March 6 was the DSU Presidential Debate for the 2018-2019 DSU election.
During their opening statements, the candidates, Mary MacDonald, Aaron Prosper, Isaac Greenberg, Jennifer Samson and Kati George-Jim all shared their basic and most important platforms for their campaign.
Samson is an engineering student who goes to school on the Sexton campus. Her main issue – which is also what inspired her to run – was that the services on the Sexton campus aren’t of equal quality to the ones on the main campus. She stressed that last year during the DSU elections, students attending the Sexton campus were given no information on how, where or when to vote. She said that making everyone on all campuses feel like part of the DSU community is something that needs to be improved.
George-Jim is a fourth-year student at Dalhousie who has been involved with several positions on the DSU in the past. She is set on making the student union more approachable for all students and to not be afraid to address uncomfortable issues or questions. For her this would include making the Student Union Building more of a hub for students, where they can come to the executive members of the union during office hours. George-Jim also emphasizes that students voices should be heard before final decisions are made.
Greenberg’s decided to run because he couldn’t find an easily understandable version of the DSU budget. He focused a lot on consulting with students and collecting data to find out what is working for people and what students want. He said during the debate, that sexual assault survivors on campus are not being helped as much, and that we should be doing more.
Prosper’s main theme was what he called “building relationships with you and for you.” He wants to form a relationship with the wider community, especially the wider political community. He draws on his previous government experience and the value in relationships outside of the campus setting. He focuses a lot on creating a community that is to be envied by other people and other schools, so people can say they are proud to go to Dalhousie. He also believes the president should be held accountable and be the one to deal with the issues.
MacDonald spoke about her academic experience at Dalhousie, and how her experience at the DSU would help her if she won the election. MacDonald is an avid advocate for marginalized students – particularly students with disabilities – and says even though this past year the school has made an effort to help marginalized students, the students with disabilities have remain neglected and she would like to change that. She also strongly believes that there should be zero tolerance for racism and adds that anyone caught engaging in it on campus should be expelled.
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