SU Elections 2022 Q&A: BoG Representative

The Board of Governors serves as the highest decision-making body at the University of Alberta. The board determines tuition fees, manages university finances and finances, and is responsible for the overall strategic direction of the university. The undergraduate Board of Governors representative is elected directly by students to serve as a voice on the board for the undergraduate body.

There is one candidate in the 2022 Students’ Union Board of Governors Representative race — Alex Dorscheid, a third year commerce student at the U of A.

The following interviews have been edited for brevity and clarity.

In one minute or less, can you tell us why you are running for the position of Board of Governors Representative?

Alex Dorscheid: I’m running for the position of Board of Governors representative because I, as well as many other students, have been very disappointed by the way the administration has handled the response to COVID-19. There’s really been no transparency and no accountability of how they make their decisions. No one really knows what’s going on until a day before. You hear from many students how they literally find out 24 hours in advance, 48 hours in advance that we’re online or this is what’s happening now.

I want to bring transparency to what happens at the Board of Governors and really bring a framework for decision-making around future COVID-19 variants, because COVID-19 is never going to go away and we can’t be constantly living at the flip of a switch. Classes online and then switch to schools in person. I really want to bring a framework for how to respond to future COVID-19 variants and to offer hybrid learning in the long term.

Can you briefly and concisely describe your platform?

Dorscheid: My three main points for my platform are going to be advocating for long-term hybrid learning. I think it’s unfair, for students who are concerned about COVID-19, that they have to come to campus for school. They should have the option to go to school online. But also for people like me, I vehemently hate online school; I need to be in-person to learn. It’s also not fair for those people as well who want to be in person if they’re comfortable with it.

I think that we need to explore for the long term at the university, as the Board of Governors, so that people who want to be in school have the ability to be in school safely and that people who want to be online can also attend their classes online.

Secondly, I’ll also be advocating for mental health resources at the school: offering more accessible mental health resources, and other general health resources at the school. I feel like there is a big communication problem that people don’t really know where to get their resources. I read all the time on the UAlberta Reddit that they’re struggling big time mentally right now and they have no idea where to get help for their mental health and I’d love to see more transparency on where people can get that help and so I’d like to show that to people, whether that be through a platform on eClass or somewhere else.

I’m a varsity athlete on the men’s soccer team and I know that we have a whole list of resources where we know who the coaches are and what resources there are for athletic therapy. Why shouldn’t students have something like that as well? Why shouldn’t they have something on eClass where they are every single day so that they can see that if they are struggling mentally right now, this is what the university can offer them, this is how they can get help.

Thirdly, I’d like to bring more transparency to the Board of Governors. I’ve talked to so many people this last week. I said, “Hey! I’m running for the Board of Governors Undergraduate representative,” and they’re like, “Oh, cool. What is that?” So I think that’s kind of disturbing that people don’t understand and don’t know what the highest decision-making body at the university is.

I’d love to bring transparency whether that be through social media posts or engaging more students. I want to make a permanent Instagram and Facebook account for the Board of Governors representative to provide periodic updates on what’s happening at board meetings and what the Board of Governors is doing for students.

The Board of Governors can be an intimidating space. Why can students trust you to advocate on their behalf to the board?

Dorscheid: I’ve never been a person that’s been shy in important conversations and so I think students can trust me because I’m going to be there for them. I’m going to advocate for them. I’m not gonna allow somebody that’s 20 plus years older than me to intimidate me into what they want. I’m not coming to the Board of Governors to make friends.

Sure, it’s important to be friends with the people on the Board, but if there’s something that’s very important to the students, I’m not going to stand down to the Board, I’m going to stand up for what’s important for students.

How will you make sure students’ voices are heard on the fiscal decisions the board makes for the university, especially as we face provincial budget cuts?

Dorscheid: I think the most important way to communicate how the fiscal decisions impact students most is to hear firsthand from students their stories and exactly what the tuition increase is going to mean for them.

I know for me specifically in my Bachelor of Commerce program, the proposed tuition increases, as listed on the previous Board of Governors meeting, are from about $8,000 a year in tuition to about $9,500 and that’s a huge increase. For some people, that means they have to take less classes, their degrees are even longer and more time out of the workforce because they can’t find a job to support themselves.

I want to hear firsthand from students what their story is, exactly what these kinds of tuition increases are going to bring upon them and I want to communicate with the Board what’s going to happen to students by making those tuition increases happen.

Editor’s Note: Under the proposed exceptional tuition increases, tuition for the Bachelor of Commerce program is increasing from $7,488 to $9,775.

Though student representatives advocated against Exceptional Tuition Increases this year, they were still approved by the Board of Governors. How will you ensure your advocacy is effective and creates impact on the institutional level?

Dorscheid: Unfortunately, the University of Alberta is facing very bleak times financially due to all the cuts from the provincial government and whether we like it or not, unfortunately the cuts are happening and tuition increases are happening. But what I can do, as Board of Governors representative, is let them know that this is going to have a huge negative impact on the long term future of our school if they’re just increasing tuition by major amounts every single year without adequately consulting students and without letting them know what’s going to happen.

I really want to advocate for students to get their money’s worth out of their education, so that they’re not having services cut for them. That’s how I’m going to advocate for them, to let the Board of Governors know the quality of education is declining greatly, even as tuition is going up — what are they going to do to make sure that students still get a good education from it?

This is a really tough time for students and there are many issues to address. What will be your number one priority as Board of Governors representative? 

Dorscheid: My number one priority as Board of Governors representative is to really have the school introduce more concrete plans on how to respond to future COVID-19 variants and to really kick a hybrid learning model into full force in the future.

That’s going to be my number one goal because I think that it’s really unfair to students on both sides of the coin, whether they want online classes or in person classes, it’s so unfair to them that they’re being forced into one or the other. I know some students really want online classes because they’re worried about COVID-19  and they want that online option, but then they’re being forced to [do] in-person school. But then a lot of people I talk to, they really want in-person classes, they can’t focus on online school at all and all their mental health is deteriorating, they have no social connection. They should have that option of in-person school.

My number one priority will be to allow both sides of that argument to do what suits them the best because there’s no reason why professors can’t be posting lecture notes online and having the resources for online and in-person schooling.

While advocating on the behalf of students, it’s important to keep them in the loop. How do you plan to communicate your advocacy to the student body?

Dorscheid: This is one of the three main pillars of my election platform — to keep students in the loop and to keep transparency for the Board. What I plan to do for that is to make a permanent Instagram account and a permanent Facebook account specifically for the Board of Governors representative so that I can provide periodic updates whenever it makes sense to let the students know what’s going on in the Board, what’s being discussed, and to also consult with them for what they think should be happening and how they feel about certain issues.

I know in the past, for me personally and other people I speak to, they have no idea what Students’ Union does, they have no idea what the Board of Governors does. I think that it’s not that the Board is not doing its job, it’s that there’s no transparency — they’re not communicating effectively with students about what’s going on. Also, students don’t have the time to listen to what’s going on in detailed documents, so I want to get brief notes periodically on what’s happening at the Board of Governors, and keep those Instagram and Facebook accounts permanently so future Governors can also let students know what’s going on with the Board and receive feedback from them.

Fun Question: If you could add any background music to Board of Governors meetings, what music would you choose?

Dorscheid: I don’t know if there’s any specific song I’d say. I would just say some kind of feel-good music, get people in a good mood for it.