Lily Polenchuk Each year, The Gateway publishes an evaluation of the Students’ Union Executive and the Board of Governors representative. It’s impossible to discuss every aspect of their tenures, so these reports are largely based on the major components of the platform each executive campaigned on, and the most significant responsibilities of their respective positions. The grading rubric can be found at the bottom of the article.
And if you’re short for time, check out our TL;DR for a bite-sized breakdown.
Levi Flaman: B-
The University of Alberta Students’ Union (UASU) vice-president (operations and finance) (VPOF) is responsible for managing the UASU’s $13 million budget. Along with that, they play an important role in overseeing the Students’ Union Building (SUB) and the UASU’s businesses. This includes Dewey’s, Room At The Top (RATT), the Daily Grind, SUBprint, and SUBmart. Aside from that, the VPOF also manages the dedicated fee units (DFU) for student groups and associations and the Sustainability and Capital Fund (SCF).
Levi Flaman has served as the VPOF for two terms now. In his second term, he managed to accomplish things that will have tangible impacts for student affordability. However, much of his work came late in his term or was even delayed from his last term.
Some movement on student affordability
While the VPOF doesn’t have much power to address affordability issues outside of the UASU’s operations, Flaman’s work lays the groundwork for future student savings. For starters, Flaman has been promoting SUBmart’s grab-and-go meals. Students can conveniently warm up these affordable meals, typically under $6 each, in the SUB microwaves.
For students who need a quick meal, many of the fast food places in SUB aren’t the most affordable option. Providing and promoting this affordable alternative is a simple and smart way to combat cost-of-living issues facing students.
On top of that, Flaman also did some social media promotion of these affordable options. According to Flaman, it was a spontaneous decision to make a video for the UASU’s Instagram account. Flaman showed me the analytics of the video, which showed that the views and interactions were significantly higher than the typical UASU Instagram post. Additionally, he said that the meals had sold out in the days after he made the post.
Offering affordable meals was a fantastic idea, but creating awareness around it was the cherry on top. After all, students can’t benefit from affordable options if they don’t know about them. So while being a social media influencer isn’t normally part of the job description, Flaman thought outside of the box.
I also have to mention the upgraded microwaves in SUB. Flaman was able to replace the older microwaves with new, higher quality ones. Aside from being able to warm up the grab-and-go meals, this also provides a better experience for students who bring their own meals from home. Better microwaves mean better options for students who are trying to spend less money on eating out.
In our interview, I asked Flaman about his work on student discounts, which he’d begun working on last term. While changes on this front have been rather minor, there is a project in the works with FlightHub. FlightHub already offers affordable options for flights, hotels, and car rentals. Flaman is working to set up a student discount with FlightHub.
If Flaman is successful with this, students could save 10 per cent on flights. That doesn’t sound like a lot, but when paying hundreds of dollars for a flight, those savings add up. This would be especially beneficial for international or out-of-province students who travel more regularly.
Flaman also worked alongside Abdul Abbasi, UASU vice-president (external) (VPX), and Renson Alva, UASU vice-president (student life) (VPSL) to renegotiate the UPass agreement. Through the UPass agreement, students get a flat rate for a semesterly transit pass.
ETS has recently raised its single and monthly rates for transit passes. Thankfully, the UPass is only seeing a $5 increase over the next three years. Abbasi said in a separate interview that ETS initially wanted to raise the cost from $180 a semester to $200 a semester. Avoiding such a big jump is no small feat. Flaman gets to take some credit for this as he was part of the negotiations.
Progress on group purchasing agreements, which could save students money
Another ongoing project of Flaman’s is group purchasing agreements. These agreements essentially give organizations discounts when purchasing supplies through the agreement. Flaman told me in our interview that he’s been able to establish one agreement with Kinetic Group Purchasing Organization (GPO). Through this, the UASU gets discounts when buying from Kinetic’s list of suppliers.
Flaman noted other agreements he’s exploring, including Integra GPO and Foodbuy. These discounts will save the UASU money, which may mean lower prices on products students are buying from the UASU. An example Flaman used was stationary supplies in SUBmart. Through the GPO, the UASU can buy at a lower price, and then sell supplies to students at a lower price. As other GPOs are hopefully secured, this can create savings for both the UASU and students in other areas.
Because the Kinetic GPO is a recent development and others aren’t yet finalized, students aren’t seeing the savings yet. But, even though it’s come late in his term, this is a good step towards offering students more affordable options in SUB. Hopefully, as time passes students will begin to reap the benefits of Flaman’s work.
Student leave of absence framework delayed, but it didn’t have to be
An election promise of Flaman’s was to create a better framework for students who are on a leave of absence. Currently, students who are on a leave of absence lose their UASU Health and Dental coverage. Fixing this seems like a no-brainer to me.
Unfortunately, this has also been delayed. Flaman told me the delay is partly due to the U of A’s slow process of making this sort of change. According to Flaman, the U of A is willing to make some changes, but that it will likely take years.
It seems obvious to me that this is something that could be addressed internally, so going to the university didn’t make a whole lot of sense. Flaman explained that he went this route because last year’s executive committee wasn’t interested in making an internal change for leaves of absence. He said this year’s executive committee is on-board with making internal changes to address the issue. But, he still went to the university before attempting to change the UASU’s framework.
It doesn’t make sense to me why he wouldn’t explore internal changes with a brand new executive team before going the university route. Flaman could have avoided this delay by addressing the internal issues first.
But, nonetheless, this is a necessary change to make and I’m glad there’s movement on it now. Flaman said he’s exploring creating tiered membership, as some other student associations do. This wouldn’t affect students taking their usual course load, but would give students on a leave of absence the option to retain their health and dental coverage, possibly among other things.
Because of the delay, we have yet to see what exactly the tiered membership will look like, what each tier will include, and how it will function. Nevertheless, Flaman has made an important step in making sure students don’t lose health and dental coverage if they have to take a leave of absence.
Some goals delayed or left unaccomplished
Unfortunately, some other things Flaman set out to do didn’t work out. One is Flaman’s effort to get an accessible, gender-neutral washroom in Dewey’s. Flaman began this project in his first term, and it is still far from completion.
When I interviewed Flaman, he said he had just received the schematics from the architect. The UASU doesn’t own the building Dewey’s is in, which has created some of the delays. However, it’s baffling to me that this project is still ongoing.
Flaman said now the UASU just needs to find funding for the washrooms. This hopefully means the renovations will start sooner rather than later. Currently, the only washrooms in Dewey’s are down a set of stairs. This makes them entirely inaccessible to anyone who uses a mobility aid and a hazard for intoxicated folks, seeing as Dewey’s is a bar.
One of Flaman’s platform points for this term was to create a housing commission to explore the possible creation of a UASU residence. The UASU originally owned HUB Mall, but sold it to the U of A because of financial struggles with operating the residence.
While buying or building a whole new residence isn’t necessarily the most realistic thing for the UASU to undertake, paying more attention to housing as an organization is a good idea. Though a student committee may be better than a commission. As students face rising rental prices on and off campus, having a student-led committee to explore these issues would be great.
This could help dig into how students specifically are affected by the housing crunch and look into solutions. The UASU could then take what they find from such a committee to municipal, provincial, and federal governments to ask for change.
But this seems to have fallen by the way-side. It’s worth noting that this wasn’t one of Flaman’s main priorities. However, seeing how big of an issue housing is for students, this should have gotten more attention.
Much like the leave of absence framework, the issue seems to largely be that Flaman focused on the wrong thing. He was more interested in the prospect of building or buying a residence than simply striking a committee to focus on the issue. Simply just creating a committee would have been more worthwhile.
Flaman has made some progress on affordability for students through his work on the UPass negotiations and GPOs. However, the delays and, at times, misplaced efforts, kept him from getting more done for students.
TL;DR: Flaman’s work was able to address affordability issues for students. He helped keep the price of the UPass down and provided, as well as promoted, quick and cheap meal options for students at SUBmart. Unfortunately, there were significant delays and some misplaced efforts in his term.
