Macy Wong During the first two 2024 Students’ Union (SU) elections forums, Adrien Lam’s solution of creating a virtual platform for students to anonymously air their grievances might have been a fresh, new idea. However, after listening to Lam at the International Students’ Association (ISA) forum and the Indigenous Students’ Union (ISU) forum, having only one idea isn’t endearing anymore. Students should expect, and deserve, more from their future Board of Governors’ (BoG) representative.
Lam harping on one idea over and over isn’t just infuriating. It’s demonstrating that she doesn’t have a connection with students.
The intention of having forums at Augustana, Campus Saint-Jean (CSJ), the ISA, and the ISU is to discuss ideas and issues directly related to those student groups. Each of these groups has incredible diversity and different needs. It’s unfair that Lam keeps presenting the same solution to all of them.
It’s also confusing, because in the Augustana and CSJ forums, she expressed that students at satellite campuses are concerned about previous BoG representatives lumping their issues together. If this is a concern she says she’s listening to, why is she always giving the same band-aid solution?
Additionally, the details of how she plans on implementing her virtual platform are problematic. At both the ISA and ISU forums, she said she plans on filtering students based on factors such as race. The problem is that filters such as these often result in Black, Indigenous, and people of colour being unfairly targeted. Lam also specified that the filter would be optional, which students could activate with a toggle. If students’ responses are filtered on a voluntary basis, I am concerned that the results would not always be accurate.
Separating student responses by campus is all fine and dandy, but separating responses by race is a slippery slope. When I asked, Lam said she had definitely considered this, but deflected by explaining the filter process again.
This has left me very disappointed in Lam. I worry someone could take advantage of this virtual platform. I would hate to see students facing unintentional discrimination, or voices unintentionally silenced. While this may be an issue she has considered, I am bothered by the lack of solutions Lam presents.
I am also concerned that if Lam can’t fully flesh out a platform beyond one point, how is she going to support a diverse group of students ? This is even more confusing because Lam has a point in her platform on supporting international students. But, she neglected to bring up this point at the ISA forum, or any forum at all. I grapple to understand how she will balance many demands when she can’t even balance her platform.
Lam is the only candidate running for BoG representative. This means students have to choose between electing her or electing no one. Disappointingly, her performance at the ISA and ISU forums has shown that she isn’t in touch with student needs. Lam would ultimately be a poor representative for the concerns of students. Unless she can drastically turn her act around by next week, students are going to be faced with unreliable representation, or no representation at all.
