Gabriella MenezesThe Indigenous Students’ Union (ISU) forum on February 28 acted as a calm in the storm for the vice-president (academic) (VPA) candidates. With the important nature of the ISU forum, Aamir Mohamed, Manyu Rathour, and Katie Tamsett acknowledged the wrongful treatment of Indigenous students in their opening statements. All three recognized that this needs to change now. Throughout each forum, the VPA candidates have attempted to address a multitude of issues all at once. This can make it hard to know which points are most important to them to implement in the future. But at the ISU forum, each of the VPA candidates were able to focus in on their ideas to address Indigenous student issues on campus. This was a fresh breath of air within the foggy areas of past forums.
The moderator, Emma-Leigh Snow, asked candidates how they would handle the racism Indigenous students experience on campus. In response, Mohamed talked of past incidents of anti-Indigenous racism he had heard of happening on campus. Mohamed also said he wants to advocate for ethical research options as there are many unethical research programs that shouldn’t be supported. Although the intention for stopping these programs is there, Mohamed never mentioned which programs are unethical. He ended by saying he wants to communicate with the Indigenous community to solve problems Indigenous students experience on campus. But the lack of specificity made his answer weaker than the other candidates’ answers.
To the same question, Rathour came with a different approach that I think could be very effective. Rathour’s initiative would be to improve education for students and professors around Indigenous culture. He also mentioned advocating for training for senior and executive staff members at the U of A on how to respectfully and adequately engage with the Indigenous community. This has come up in the past, but has not yet been fully implemented, according to Rathour. It’s clear Rathour has a sincere desire to support Indigenous students at the U of A.
Following Rathour’s strong plan for change, Tamsett brought a different focus. She suggested a simple yet important idea to require that the Indigenous information provided in classrooms is accurate and culturally appropriate. Making sure that the quality of education is equal and fair for Indigenous students was another strong point from Tamsett. Through this, Tamsett brings great idea for change with the classroom.
From the start to the end of the ISU forum, it was clear how important advocating for Indigenous students is to the VPA candidates. I felt especially confident in Rathour’s and Tamsett’s simple, yet effective plans to support Indigenous students. While I believe Mohamed has the right intentions, the amount of real ideas he had to make that change underwhelmed me. Even if their priorities may vary, each candidate clearly has a strong desire to address ongoing issues on campus.
