DSU president-elect plans to increase student engagement, union transparency

Anjali Seshadri, president-elect of the Dalhousie Student Union, says she will improve student engagement by implementing more student-facing initiatives.

Seshadri’s previous roles include serving as the 2SLGBTQIA+ students’ community representative, as well as a member of the DSU oversight committee and bylaw and policy review committee.

Seshadri promises to initiate reforms that make the DSU more collaborative and transparent when she officially takes office on May 1.

Related: Anjali Seshadri elected DSU president

This interview has been edited for clarity, grammar and length.

For students who weren’t familiar with you as a candidate, what are the most important pillars of your platform that you’ll be carrying into your term?

A lot of students don’t know much about the DSU, the services we offer, or the advocacy we do on behalf of students. What I’m seeing is a lack of student engagement in the DSU, which is really not the fault of students. We have more outreach that we need to do.

In response to the low turnout in the most recent election, what will you do to increase student engagement in the DSU?

The election turnout isn’t just a problem by itself; it’s an indicator of a larger issue with student engagement at the DSU. Students are not knowledgeable about getting involved, and the DSU doesn’t do a good job of telling them. Councillors need to have a more defined role — right now, there aren’t specific things that they’re required to do during their term. Maybe they’re coming out to council meetings and a couple of the university committees, but a lot of that isn’t student-facing work, so students don’t learn about who their representatives are and what their representatives can do for them. I’m hoping that over the next year, I can set up a mandate for councillors to run their own student-facing projects.

Related: Student union election decided by just 12.5% of students

Have you been in contact with the rest of the incoming executive team? How would you describe your preliminary conversations?

I’ve had meetings so far with the incoming vice-president academic and external, and vice-president internal. I’m still in the process of reaching out to the new councillors. With the executive officers, the common platform we’ve landed on is the lack of student engagement and transparency. We agree on a few things we want to do as the executive committee, including having open office hours at the Studley and Sexton campuses. There is a lack of social media presence that they want to alleviate through having executive officers appear in posts and talk to students about what’s going on.

In a previous interview with the Dalhousie Gazette, you expressed your goals of making the council more transparent and collaborative. What strategies will you adopt to achieve this?

It’s really important as president to have a close relationship with the council. We have four executive officers at the DSU. Four people cannot feasibly do everything that a student union of 20,000 students needs. That means we have to decentralize some of the work to councillors and make sure they can bring forward initiatives that students care about.

What issues do you think students are most worried about right now? How will you address them in your term?

One of the big things that’s come up in conversation is tuition. We paid full tuition during our fall 2025 term, but we lost three weeks of classes during the lockout. Getting back those funds to students, hopefully through a tuition refund, would be a great objective of the union.

What message do you have for students ahead of your term?

Student participation and student mobilization are important things. I would urge any student to bring up initiatives or ideas to the council, or if they see any problems in their faculties or communities, to bring them up to their representatives.