Leah HennigVice-president (student life) (VPSL) candidates made it clear at the International Students’ Association (ISA) forum that petty arguing is more important than addressing issues. Brish Goorimoorthee, Nolan Greenwood, Manyu Rathour, and Paige Wall continued to talk about their plans. But, hidden underneath those plans was a desire to take jabs at each other. The VPSL position is incredibly important to the University of Alberta Students’ Union (SU), but candidates are acting like it isn’t.
The ISA forum is the second-to-last forum that these candidates go to before the major Myer Horowitz forum. With this in mind, it’s shocking how repetitive every one of the candidates has been throughout the entire election cycle. In some ways, it is understandable why some points are repeated, as it is usually a different crowd from forum to forum. Simultaneously, though, each forum is designed to recognize specific groups on campus. At the ISA forum, many points were a rinse and repeat of previous ideas. To address these issues over and over again, under no new light, feels slightly lazy.
Goorimoorthee and Wall have continued to prove that they do not stand out in this race. They have both shown that they know nothing more than listening and consulting with students on all campuses. An important part of the job is listening, but it isn’t the entire job. Change is what the VPSL role needs. Becoming complacent while campaigning for a role that they don’t even have shows how unseriously they are taking this.
Greenwood has continued to advocate on his three pillars. First, he wants to continue advocating for residence support. Secondly, he wants to push for the implementation of the Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) task force. And finally, he wants to build and strengthen advocacy on campus. While in regards to all these points, he mentioned how many of these issues disproportionately affect international students, but none of his plans for achieving the solutions to these problems changed. If he is going to mention how international students are more affected, it seems there should be a more specific response to these issues.
Throughout the forum, Rathour addressed too many, and not enough, issues. His platform also stands on three main principles: advocacy, social impact, and community building. Thankfully, Rathour was able to mention issues that directly affect international students. This, however, comes with a note that he seems to have too many things apart of his agenda. To show just some of the plans he has in place: fighting food insecurity, de-standardizing rent, stopping tuition hikes, raising campus spirit, mental health support, and, of course, the free SU prom. He does seem to contradict himself, though, by claiming that the SU wastes money while also promoting a prom. How he can realistically achieve any of this isn’t clear.
The biggest concern that came from this forum was how Rathour and Greenwood handled their egos. This, however, is not the first time issues have come up between the two of them. The fact that it has continued on into more than one forum is concerning.
During the Augustana forum, Greenwood asked Rathour whether or not he would be able to deliver on all of his promises without a concrete plan of action. Rather hastily, Rathour responded by claiming that he would be able to achieve everything he set out to do, even if Greenwood wouldn’t be able to. Now, a day later, Greenwood asked Rathour another question regarding how the SU would fund all the events he has planned. Again, Rathour was quick to dismiss the question as absurd and claim that the SU wastes a lot of money. At the same time, Rathour is also promoting a free prom that would likely be expensive.
Between the two of them, neither is more right than the other. Both are participating in petty politics. All of this isn’t proving that either is doing better than the other in the election cycle. What it is showing is that they are more interested in winning a vote by giving the most slights to each other.
Rathour also seemed to be set on taking shots at other candidates. At the last forum, he interjected while Goorimoorthee answered his question. This earned Rathour a public warning for heckling. The frustration he has with his opponent dancing around a question isn’t the issue. How Rathour handles himself while trying to position himself as a leader is.
At the ISA forum, this continued. He proudly told the audience that he sees international students, but doubts that his opponents do. Goorimoorthee quickly pointed out that he’s made efforts to listen and understand international students ahead of his campaign. It was cheap, and a waste of precious time.
Overall, this forum was messy. Candidates either have no voice in change or are more interested in publicly fighting. As this is the second-to-last forum for VPSL candidates, it’s frustrating to see little to no progression. Hopefully, the MyHo will allow one of the candidates to stand out from the others.
