True Representation
I will actively represent students so that your voices are heard where it matters. I will help students work together to achieve our shared goals. Together we can organize ourselves to create a strong vision for our campus community so that when we speak our minds politicians and university administrators actually listen!
Lowering Tuition Fees
Tuition fees must be lowered and differential fees removed for international students. The government has announced it plans to increase fees for the next three years, but student opposition has made them change their mind before. Students should not have to take on debt to get an education. If we want everyone to have the opportunity to go to school then we need to make tuition fees affordable for all.
24h Study Space
Students need study space on campus that is open 24 hours a day. Having flexible options about where to study and when is increasingly important. I will ask for support from the university and work to create this project.
Health Services
Lobby for more counseling services and increased accessibility. Every student deserves support and I will advocate to the university that this essential service needs to be prioritized. Currently, there is a 6-week waiting list for counseling services and Dal has one of the worst counsellor to student ratios in the country. We should do better.
Last year the DSU helped get our Accessibility specialist back on staff. This is important but we can do more. I will strongly advocate for the university to protect and enhance accessibility and counseling services.
Fostering a Culture of Equality and Inclusion
Recognize and encourage a community of diversity, including all ethnic backgrounds, religions, sexual orientations, and genders. We need to cultivate a university community that is committed to principles of equality and inclusion. I will work to ensure that the services the DSU offer caters to the diversity of interests and needs of our student population.
I am also committed to ensuring that issues brought up by marginalized students are taken seriously, and that appropriate action is taken against racism, sexism, homophobia on our campus.
Meaningful Engagement - Making the DSU Important to Students
I will work to make the work of the DSU a more engaging, accessible and important institution for all students. I strongly reject the prevalent notion that students are apathetic. I look at student involvement in societies, community projects and on individual projects and see people craving engagement. I want to engage people by making the services and campaigns of the DSU matter to students.
Consultation and Mobilization
Consult with students to find out what issues they care about. The DSU should be a place for grievances and passions to be voiced and acted on. I will engage students in questions about how their school could be better and work hard to make those improvements.
I will help to mobilize people around these issues. I will ensure the DSU runs campaigns so that everyone knows what we are working on, why, and how they can help.
Consultation ensures that people know that their concerns and ideas are important and listened to. Mobilization of people around issues that they care about is empowering.
Make an Academic and an External Committee
Split the current joint Academic External Committee of the DSU.
This would allow for more clarity around what the committees do, would allow students to get involved in them more easily and make them more relevant.
Give these committees a mandate to consult, recruit, and organize students.
Culture of Engagement Within the DSU
Every student initiative, society, and engagement with the DSU is incredibly valuable. We need to change the DSU culture so that we reach out to students and societies to help them, as opposed to letting them navigate alone.
Make the DSU less bureaucratic with fewer hoops to jump through and more channels for involvement. The DSU is a union of students. The Executive should be doing all it can to engage with the members. Creating more channels for involvement will help students become more active in their union.
Support Existing Initiatives
Support current student initiatives like Brains for Change and the DSU Leadership Program.
I nspired Food Options
I will continue to work to create food options that are accessible and diverse. Students need access to food that is inexpensive, ethnically appropriate, vegan, gluten-free, healthy, and environmentally and socially sustainable.
A Food Coop
Make sure that the Loaded Ladle food coop gets a permanent space in the SUB.
Encourage them to serve free or subsidized food 5 days a week.
Support them and other related initiatives in any way I can.
Student Control
Move to self operated food service in the SUB so students have more control, choice and say in the food they eat, including local businesses and franchisees when necessary.
Sexton
Open the T-Room on the Sexton campus during the day and serve food. The university has already requested that it be open. Serving food is a realistic and important addition.
Food Bank
Promote and strengthen the food bank. Student poverty is a problem the DSU should be concerned with. Currently very few students know about the food bank and students are forced to make tough budget compromises.
Empowering Education
I want to create a culture of learning on campus as well as a space for critical engagement about how we learn. I will work with faculty and the Centre for Learning and Teaching to make sure students are happy with their classes. This will be done by the new Academic Committee of the DSU. I want students to care about and be proud of the work they are doing.
Hold Educational Events
Host high profile speakers, create opportunities for panel discussions, teach-ins and debates.
This years “Bigger Picture” lecture series and Ted X talk are great initiatives that I will continue and strengthen.
Give Students the Floor
Give students a space to share papers, projects or ideas that they are passionate about. The Dal Arts and Sciences Society’s (DASS) conference is an important example of this.
Give Voice to Student Ideas on Education
Have constructive dialogue about how education could be better.
The Centre for Learning and Teaching runs workshops and conferences on how to teach. These should be based off of concerns or ideas that students have expressed. This can happen through consultation of the student body as well as student participation in these conferences.
Learning Outside of Class
Study in Action is a program that aims to have students’ class work contribute to community projects. I would work to have this program active in classes within many disciplines.
