SU Elections 2022 Q&A: President

The Students’ Union president serves as the primary spokesperson of the Students’ Union. As the chief representative of the Students’ Union and undergraduate students at the University of Alberta, they oversee the rest of the Students’ Union executives and the organization’s operations. Additionally, they sit on university governance bodies including the Board of Governors and General Faculties Council.

There are three candidates in the 2022 Students’ Union presidential race:

• Abner Monteiro, a sixth-year kinesiology student and current vice-president (academic) on Students’ Council.
• Emily Kimani, a fifth-year immunology and infection student and current vice-president (operations and finance) on Students’ Council.
• Haruun Ali, a second-year open studies student and current Students’ Union open studies councillor.

The following interviews have been edited for brevity and clarity.

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In one minute or less, can you tell us why you are running for the position of Students’ Union President?

Abner Monteiro: I’m running for Students’ Union President because when I first came to this university, I saw a lot of opportunity to make change that could better the student experience. Since that time when I first started getting involved in student governance, I’ve been involved ever since at multiple different levels, starting to my faculty association, where I was involved with the Kinesiology, Sport, and Recreation Student Society, to Students’ Council, to General Faculties Council, and the highest decision-making bodies at the University of Alberta. Through my time here, I’ve seen so many different opportunities and have had the opportunity to make a lot of impactful change.

I still think that there’s so much more that we can do, and especially at this point that we’re coming to, with the current budget that’s out, the ideas that I’m putting forward in my platform address a lot of the challenges that students have been facing over the last little while and things that are also extremely important to me, and that I’ve seen over the past few years. I’m really excited to bring that forward, put my name forward and be able to present that to the student body and hope that they are in support of that too.

Emily Kimani: Being a student myself, I understand this year has been incredibly frustrating and challenging for students. We’ve had to endure online school, budget cuts, and tuition increases. This is a year that we can hold the university and the Students’ Union accountable, so that we can move forward to a better and brighter future together.

Haruun Ali: Over the past year, I’ve had a lot of great experiences working with politicians — even me myself running for office. I’ve seen a lot of things the SU’s done and I think that we can do better. As we come back to campus the Students’ Union is in a very unique position to help change campus life for the better — to help get more folks involved in different things and to really help folks feel like they’re connected to their campus. It’s a really good time for us to actively hold our university accountable, especially when it comes to restructuring. Can we make sure that we have appropriate staff that can actually help students, when there’s issues?

With all my experience working with politicians [and] advocating, that can make me a really successful SU president, and make sure that we complete our advocacy objectives quickly and efficiently.

Could you briefly and concisely describe your platform?

Monteiro: My platform is centred around five main points. The first one is a better student experience. The focus around this is academic improvements and student-led improvements. So advocating for higher learning options and bring bringing forward some very tangible solutions, working with instructors to remove the final exam requirement for them, and also creating a new syllabus bank for students so that they don’t have to be enrolled in courses to be able to see the course syllabi. Improving student life on campus, so working to foster a campus community that has really strong businesses, so students can go and enjoy themselves, but also be able to host their own events and feel supported.

The second part of my platform is around accessibility and affordability, which is around primarily around improving our student financial aid system, and making sure that education is not a burden to achieve. I’m doing that through both the provincial government and the federal government, but also through the university because international students don’t get financial aid from the government, so we want to make sure that we can find ways to help offset their costs as well.

The third part is creating a safe and welcoming campus community, which is supporting students in need. Making sure that there’s adequate support and funding for sexual violence, mental health, and addiction supports on campus so that students can get the help they need in a timely way. Also creating welcoming spaces on campus and advocating for the building of Maskwa House, making sure the Students’ Union services that we always refer students to have enough space to take capacity of students that are in need.

The fourth part of my platform is centred around a Student’s Union for all and making sure every student is represented by the Students’ Union. Part of that platform is making sure to really harness Students’ Union Perks as a very strong platform to be able to gather student opinion on a large scale, to bring a unified voice to the to the university, creating a student concern portal for a lot of students who’ve been having a hard time this year, or [have faced] challenges in their courses and being able to help empower them to be able to do advocacy, but also make sure they can connect into the Students’ Union more promptly.

[The final part] is preparing students for their future. This is around making sure that there’s adequate financial and structural supports for students and work-integrated learning terms. For international students, making sure that there’s a streamlined and simple system for them to achieve permanent residency provincially. Federally, making sure that they don’t need to both have a work permit and a study permit to be able to study at U of A and be able to do work integrated learning at the same time.

Kimani: My platform is spread out into three main points. One, the student experience, which covers tackling tuition increases, addressing sexual violence on campus, and rebuilding our community. The second main theme is accessibility on campus, so prioritizing accessible learning, like the duty to accommodate policy, and making sure that campus outside of the classroom is accessible. My third point is justice on campus — empowering and advocating for Indigenous voices, ensuring a green future and ensuring that our Students’ Union reflects the diversity in its membership.

Ali: For the first one, the biggest thing that we want to do is we want to work on financial aid. Financial aid has been something that’s fundamentally broken and it’s something that we need to advocate for better. I’m going to be committed to fighting against any tuition increases at all. I’m going to be working with the vice president (external) and vice president (student life) to organize media campaigns if tuition increases do come back up.

When it comes accessibility and supporting survivors, I want to make sure that we’re looking at the Sexual Assault Centre and seeing how we can better support survivors. I also want to make sure that we have gender neutral bathrooms in all campus buildings, and that we have prayer spaces as well in reasonable walk distances.

Finally, when it comes to community and governance, I want to establish better relationships with our students and outside high schools, and really get folks involved. I also want to make sure to you that we’re looking at ways to generate revenue as well. One of my suggestions is for us to hold an annual gala. Similar to what the university does — I think it’s time for us to start harping on our alumni for some extra donations.

Students have expressed a greater need for mobilization of the student body. As Students’ Union president, how would you go about this?

Monteiro: I think student mobilization is really important. There are a couple of different ways to be able to do this. We have student leaders on campus that can definitely support that work. A lot of the ideas that are in my platform are going to require student mobilization and us coming together as a community to be able to make this change. As one example, that I put into my platform, it’s around advocacy on Maskwa House. The people who really know about Maskwa House can acknowledge that it’s really important to create that space for Indigenous students on campus — but a lot of students, if you go to ask them what Maskwa House is, they wouldn’t be able to tell you.

There’s a lot of ways that we can do better awareness too but also put the power into students’ hands — help them be involved directly in the process of making change and advocating for things to the university. We have Perks, we have the ability to do protests when they’re necessary, and we really need to make a voice when students are angry. We really need to be able to leverage this opportunity, especially when we’re going into an election year and we’re going to be electing a new provincial government. We want to make sure that students’ views and post-secondary views are reflected enough.

Kimani: As I said before, a big part of my platform is rebuilding and revitalizing campus because we haven’t been on campus for two years. In order to mobilize our community, we need those community supports. I plan on doing that by empowering student groups, and making sure that student events are our central.

Ali: I am someone that loves to pick up a sword and go down to the Legislative Assembly. I’m not afraid to stand up. I’m not afraid to fight for students. For me, I have years upon years of activist experience; I’ve organized several different protests around the city. One of the things you can expect out of me as Students’ Union president is that we will be holding several different protests. We will get the our provincial government to at least acknowledge that we’re students and that we’re frustrated. We’re angry, and we’re deeply upset with what’s happening to our university with these massive government cuts and rollbacks. We need to ensure that we’re creating a province where post-secondary education matters. I’m committed to making post-secondary education a ballot box issue and the next upcoming provincial election.

With reduced COVID-19 restrictions from the university and from the provincial government, some U of A students have expressed concern about safety on campus. How will you advocate for the safety of students on campus, and specifically for students living in residence?

Monteiro: Safety has been a big concern over the past past few years, and is becoming an increasing problem. In my platform, I directly address the need for campus safety and for transit safety for students. In some ways, it’s a challenging topic because everyone has opposing or as different views on what safety means and what security means. We have students who may not like the presence of police or security on campus, and we have other students who really do like the feeling of having campus security.

I think what we need to do is work together to find a solution, and the Students’ Union has already started doing that through developing political policy. Working with the different stakeholders who have who have different views on campus security can ensure that we can create a policy that’s reflective of everyone’s needs and offer a way to move forward. As far as transit safety, it’s also extremely important — students don’t feel safe. There’s a lot of things around transit safety that I think can be improved through municipal advocacy, such as improving the lighting in a lot of the LRT stations and improving cell service reception in LRT stations, which you currently don’t get.

Kimani: I think that goes back to your point about mobilizing the student community. I think it takes one, for us to be on the same page so that we can go advocate to the university. I think multiple times this year that we’ve shown that the student voice is important, and we can make change on campus. So that’s how I plan to go about that.

Ali: Right now with the Restrictions Exemptions Program, I brought the discussion to Student Council as I’m currently a councillor. We were discussing this, and I was happy to advocate to the executive team for us to purchase several different masks, which will be available starting Monday. At the end of the day, we need to have COVID-19 protections. COVID-19 is not over as much as our premier thinks it is. We need to keep our mask mandate, and we should have kept our vaccine passport system. I’m very disappointed that we didn’t.

One of my bigger concerns too right now is how quickly our university just folded to our government when they removed the Restrictions Exemptions Program. I’m very concerned that a similar thing could happen with the mask mandate. This is something that’s going to most likely happen in the next couple of weeks. If I am elected, I will start immediately working with the current executive team and the future executive team to call for said advocacy.

One of the best ways that we can really get things done I think is email campaigns. I think people respond to getting mass spam emails from students saying we want COVID-19 protections — and if the university doesn’t do anything, I think that’s a bad look. We need to have these protections to protect each other, so we can stay on campus. If you want to stay on campus, get vaccinated [and] keep your mask on. This is a very simple thing. It’s been two years; we’re all sick and tired of it, but the reality of the situation is that if we want to stay healthy, and if we want to keep our campus community protected, these are the necessary steps that we take. I’m going to completely relay these messages to the university administration.

When it comes to residences as well, I think it’s more than important for them to have a vaccine passport, because these are people you’re actually living with. So it’s incredibly important, especially in communal spaces, like kitchens, like gyms, like bathrooms, you need to have COVID-19 protections, and especially you need to be wearing a mask. So I’m committed to working with residence associations as well to advocate for this and to work with them. This is actually one of my key platforms under advocacy to the provincial government is to secure rapid tests for people. There’s something I’ve actively brought up to Students’ Council, and I believe that we are working on filling.

Many consider Exceptional Tuition Increases (ETI’s) to be at the forefront of student concerns this past year. Even with student advocacy, they were still approved by the Board of Governors. What do your plans to advocate for, or against, these tuition increases look like?

Monteiro: The most important thing with tuition increases is that it’s not a decision that I make on my own or that I unilaterally make. It’s really important to understand that students have their own views on Exceptional Tuition Increases in my conversations with students and faculty associations across campus.

There are a lot of students who, the way the current exceptional tuition increases have been approached, are not satisfied with [the increases] — but they do understand the need to have an Exceptional Tuition Increase, had they been done properly, to make sure that they can have improved quality and make sure that they can have a program that’s as high caliber as the other ones across the country. It’s really important that we’re connecting with our student leaders who are already in these faculties are experiencing what the programs are like and seeing what they want, and making sure that what we do is reflective.

We’ve had a lot of conversations this year and for the most part in this current circumstance, the proposals that have been put forward have been less than ideal. When they got sent back and put forward again, there was definitely a lot of improvement from the first time around. We’re still working with faculty association students to reflect their needs. So if the Engineering Students’ Society is in favour of a proposal, we’ll work with them to help support that if that’s what students in engineering want, but we are making sure that we’re being responsive to the needs of students.

Kimani: I plan to do this two ways. Firstly, by making it an election issue. So we have a provincial election coming up. I think this is our opportunity to show our potential new government that tuition increases are unacceptable, and if they want students to back them up, well, they need to address tuition. The second is to advocate for more student aid specifically for low-income students.

Ali: One of the things I think is really important when it comes to acceptable tuition increases is recognizing that our financial aid system fundamentally doesn’t work. So if we keep increasing tuition, and we don’t have a source for students actually pay for it, then we’re just basically bankrupting students and making post-secondary education an elitist thing. Post-secondary education should be available to everyone. That’s one reason why I’m committed to advocating against exceptional tuition increases.

We need more folks hired in the Sexual Assault Centre, we need more folks need more mental health people. Right now at Augustana Campus, they don’t even have a sexual violence coordinator in their residences — even a part-time one. There is a dire staff need, what’s called a staff shortage to an extent when it comes to support staff, and students need this, especially as we come back. So if they want to be increasing tuition, which I’m completely against, at the bare minimum, they need to show how they’re going to actually improve the university.

If the university doesn’t want to advocate for itself against these tuition increases, we as a Students’ Union we need to mobilize, we need to get folks out. I was so happy just last week to see the protests that we went to the Legislative Assembly — we need to see more of that. We need to bring back those little penguins too. That’s what I’m committed to doing. I’m committed to rigorous advocacy.

A Students’ Union survey revealed that 33 per cent of U of A students want to leave Alberta after graduating, 51 per cent of students are facing food insecurity, and 54 per cent of LGBTQIA+ students want to leave after graduating. Commonly referred to as a ‘brain drain,’ this issue is on many students’ minds. What steps will you take to address this?

Monteiro: First, it’s about creating a community [and] society where everyone feels like they have a place and making sure we have the adequate supports in place. It starts within our university community, then expands out beyond to the greater Edmonton and Alberta community.

A lot of things in my platform address student concerns, and students in need, with different social supports that they need to be able to flourish. Also providing work-integrated learning opportunities for students that are fulfilling for them and reflect what they want out of their education. More often than not, the students that get opportunities through work-integrated learning know that they have job security, feel like they made a life for themselves, build a community and network around themselves, and are more inclined to want to stay here and contribute to Alberta’s economy.

Right now, we’re in a situation where the provincial government doesn’t necessarily recognize that and they’ve not invested adequately in order to fund Alberta’s future which is going to be our post-secondary institutions. And we have to make sure that we get the message clearly across to them that students are leaving — it’s a concern. We have to be offering a better quality education to students here at the U of A and across the province, but also making sure that we’re investing in other supports for students to create opportunities for them to enter the workforce and feel like they’re contributing to Alberta.

Kimani: This can be tackled a few different ways. I think we all have to address the fact that the U of A is not the experience that we all wanted. I know in my first year, I was very much looking forward to experiencing a campus life. I know for me, and most of us, we haven’t experienced a positive post-secondary experience.

So I think, one, ensuring that we have green jobs available after graduation to address students leaving campus right after graduation, and, second, advocating to university for more supports. I’ve heard a lot of a lot of this from students during my consultation, that they just don’t feel heard from the university. So I think we need to stand up and hold the university accountable because we are paying for our education.

Ali: I think this goes back to how our provincial government has treated post secondary students. Post-secondary students don’t feel comfortable staying here. I mean heck, I even tried leaving after high school. I can attest to this.

Our universities have been underfunded, our universities have been massively cut, especially the University of Alberta — $220 million in the last three years. This is a massive issue. Students here can read — we’re seeing what’s happening. A lot of folks are frustrated. We’re seeing grants being cut. We’re seeing scholarships being cut. Post-secondary education is slowly becoming a luxury instead of an actual accessible thing for students, so I can’t blame them for leaving.

How do we stop them from leaving? By working with all parties this next provincial election to get students’ interests on their platforms. We need hard commitments by all parties that they are going to actually advocate for students.

Our current government — we need to continue advocacy with them. Unfortunately, they’re still the government, so we do need to advocate with them. I’m committed to working with all current government members in good faith. I think it’s more than important for us to mobilize like the bigger unions that we’re seeing right now. We need to get out there, we need to show that students are here. We’re frustrated, and we’re angry. I’m committed to collaborating with all these students associations across Edmonton and across Alberta to really mobilize this next provincial election to make post-secondary education something that’s top of mind.

This is a really tough time for students and there are many issues to address. What would your number one priority be as Students’ Union President? 

Monteiro: This year, as vice-president (academic), the one thing that I’ve seen is online learning has been extremely challenging for a lot of students — but I’ve also seen it be a very divisive topic. There are students who want to be in-person, and there are students who also want to be online. The best way forward is that we really can’t have a solution that works for everybody.

In my platform, the primary concern — you’ll see it right at the top of the platform — is addressing hybrid learning options and bringing forward tangible solutions that support students who are in need. Right now, we’re still in the pandemic. We’re moving away, and restrictions are being loosened and things are starting to go back to normal again. Students are still concerned. Students are still worried about coming back to campus, the fact that they might catch COVID-19, the fact that they’re putting family members at risk, they may be immune compromised, they may be caregivers. We need to be receptive to that and try to find solutions that work for them. I’m putting forward a platform with some tangible solutions to addressing hybrid learning in a way that I think both works for students and accommodates their needs, and works for instructors as well and makes them receptive to wanting to support students in this.

Kimani: I do have a few priorities but I think my biggest one is addressing online learning and how to move forward [which is] in my platform. It obviously goes through all the details. I do think that we need to have an online policy moving forward, because this year has been in the last year has been completely unacceptable.

The university has had two years to sort out online learning, but they have not. We can see from survey results that we’ve put out a few years ago, a few months ago, students are suffering in their mental health, they don’t feel supported. Tuition increases are increasing, but we’re not getting the education that we deserve.

A big priority of mine is going to be advocating for that policy and mandating certain things, so that each class you can expect you can you can expect quality education. I’ve heard from a lot of students that one prof might be very accommodating, but the other prof just uses 10 year old recordings. Fighting for that policy, as well as trying to revitalize campus, because it’s not always about academics, it’s about student life.

Ali: My number one thing would be fighting against tuition increases and fixing the financial aid system.

Fun Question: Where is your favourite place to study or get work done on U of A’s campus?

Monteiro: I am a student in the faculty of kinesiology, sport, and recreation and I have spent the majority of my degree in the Van Vliet Complex. I really love just being around Social Street, which is where Chopped Leaf and the hallway by the Kinesiology, Sport, and Recreation Student Society’s office is. It gives me a chance to get work done. I can watch people in the gym, playing sports and whatnot, and also just be able to have a conversation with some friends and some people.

As I’ve gone through my degree, I’ve started to really enjoy going to the library. My favourite place to go is a John W. Scott library. That’s in the Katz Building, the medical sciences building. It’s my favourite place to go. It’s nice and quiet. It just feels like the perfect environment for me to be able to accomplish things and get things done.

Kimani: I would say the Students’ Union Building (SUB) in those colourful couches. We love a good scenery. Either that or Edmonton Clinic Health Academy (ECHA) because there’s a Starbucks there, and Starbucks is always my go-to when studying.

Ali: This is gonna sound weird — Dewey’s. I have ADHD, so it’s weird for me to be sitting in quiet. I like something going on in the background. I know Dewey’s hasn’t been open too much this year, but since it’s been open in January I’ve been heading there consistently. Another space I use is Cameron. The basement is nice, it has a slight ring so it’s not pure quiet, so it’s kind of nice.

–With files from Jin He

Correction: This article was corrected on March 1 at 5:28 p.m. to state that Abner Monteiro is in his sixth-year of university. An earlier edition said he is a 5th-year student. The Gateway regrets this error.