Amanda SparksDisclosure: Benjamin J. Kucher was previously the GSA’s vice-president (student life).
Graduate students at the University of Alberta deserve a representative body that not only defends our rights on campus but also empowers us to be active participants in the democratic processes that shape our futures. Yet once again, the Graduate Students’ Association (GSA) has failed to step up when it matters most. With a federal election on the horizon, the GSA’s total inaction on student voter engagement — despite having every opportunity and resource available — is both telling and unacceptable.
The national Get Out The Vote campaign is a non-partisan initiative aimed at increasing student participation in federal elections. While the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations (CASA) does not directly run the campaign, CASA — of which the GSA is a member — offers extensive access to promotional materials, campaign infrastructure, and national partnerships specifically designed to support local efforts. These resources are available to help student associations run effective, visible, and collaborative campaigns on their own campuses. And yet, the GSA has done nothing.
There has been no engagement strategy, no voter registration efforts, no information tables, no email outreach, no posters — nothing. What makes this silence even more frustrating is that the U of A Students’ Union (UASU) has already begun advertising and organizing its own Get Out The Vote campaign. If our undergraduate colleagues can take the lead in promoting civic participation, why can’t our graduate leadership do the same?
In my view, the answer lies in a broader pattern of disengagement and deeply misplaced priorities. This is the same GSA that recently proposed a $7,000 cut to the associate vice-president labour’s (AVPL) stipend. This effectively devalues the one executive role dedicated to leading our union and defending the rights of over 3,500 academically employed graduate students. That proposed cut came despite a projected surplus in the Labour Union Fund. At the same time, the GSA’s travel and external advocacy budget is projected to increase by 20 per cent to $30,000.
Even more concerning, the AVPL has no vote on the Budget and Finance Committee. This further reveals a governance structure that seems designed to suppress meaningful representation and input from those doing the actual work. The GSA is choosing to prioritize executive travel over labour advocacy and refuses to engage in a non-partisan, national campaign to increase student voter turnout. This sends a very clear message: real advocacy is not the priority.
The GSA’s failure to engage with the Get Out The Vote campaign isn’t just a missed opportunity — it’s a fundamental abdication of its responsibility to its members. Graduate students are struggling with rising tuition, precarious funding, and growing economic pressure. Civic participation is one of the most powerful tools we have to make real change. The GSA has the resources through CASA. It has a model to follow through the UASU. It has the responsibility. And still — it chooses silence.
But this doesn’t have to be the standard.
I imagine a different kind of GSA: one that sends out reminders to register to vote, sets up booths across campus, collaborates with national and local organizations, and fully leverages its membership in CASA to drive civic engagement. A GSA that understands representation doesn’t end at the edge of campus. Federal decisions impact our research funding, our housing access, our job prospects, and our futures.
That kind of GSA isn’t a fantasy. It’s what we should expect — and it’s what we must demand.
In 2025, during a federal election that will shape the future of students across Canada, our GSA chooses to do nothing. A choice that must not go unnoticed. It must be called out. And above all, it must be changed. Graduate students deserve a GSA that shows up — for our labour, our learning, and our democracy.
