Every year The Gateway hosts a panel to determine who should and who will win in each race for the Students’ Union elections to assist those undecided on who to vote for. Our election dissection panel is here with their insights on student politics and their takes on this year’s candidates.

Opinions expressed by the panellists do not reflect those of The Gateway.

The Panel

This year’s panel for election dissection included:

• Tom Ndekezi: U of A alumni, former arts and culture editor at The Gateway

• Kyle Monda: U of A alumni, past Gateway contributor, GFC and Students’ Council councillor, past candidate for Students’ Union vice-president (student life) 

• Alyssa Stoddard: third-year political science and English student, previous caucus researcher for the Government of Alberta (2019 – 2021)

The Candidate

• Alex Dorscheid, a third-year commerce student at the University of Alberta and student senator.

The sole Board of Governors (BoG) representative candidate did not impress the panellists.

Stoddard noted that although she wasn’t familiar with the BoG representative candidate race, she had not seen much of Dorscheid on her social media.

“I would say that because there is no other candidate, it would seem that he’s not working as hard to connect with students,” Stoddard said. “I really haven’t seen a lot of information about him, or posters, or anything of the sort on campus.” 

Additionally, Monda commented that the BoG representative always promises to have improved communication, but “none of them ever deliver,” and it seems to be a resources issue, but too much work to ask of the BoG representative, or any other unpaid Students’ Union volunteer.

Monda noted that Dorscheid’s platform’s promise for a permanent BoG rep social media was the “bare minimum,” and that the permanent shift to hybrid learning would require a lot of consultation with General Faculties Council (GFC), making it a “bold goal.”

Panellists discussed Dorscheid’s response to vice-president (student life) candidate Rowan Morris’s question during the Residence forum about his planned response to COVID-19 in residences. All panellists felt that his response was a “non-answer,” fitting with the rest of his campaign.

“I don’t think he’s really said much throughout his whole campaign, and that kind of fits the pattern,” Ndekezi said.

“Wanting to give students choice in how they respond to the pandemic going forward by pushing this hybrid learning model — you could stay off campus if you choose or you could be on campus all the time,” Monda said. “So rather than taking a stand and saying, ‘these are the measures we need to implement or not,’ he’s taken the middle road there, which could be the responsible choice, but it also might leave students wondering what he thinks. But, hybrid learning might be the future.”

Though Ndekezi said that Dorscheid’s platform didn’t impress him, he would rather have someone in the BoG representative role than no one at all. This sentiment was echoed by all panellists.

“This candidate definitely hasn’t impressed me personally,” Ndekezi said. “I don’t know if it’s been bad enough — I think if you go vote for ‘none of the above,’ it has to be like, ‘oh, this person might actually derail things.’ Like actually cause harm. I haven’t got that impression from [Dorscheid].”

“I agree with that,” Stoddard added. “At least he has a platform and some commitments to being on BoG.”

Monda especially felt that the position was better off filled, as he was concerned a by-election wouldn’t end in a better result.

“His campaign is inoffensive enough that I think he will win, and having someone in the position is better than leaving it unfilled,” Monda commented. “I don’t feel confident that if there was a ‘none of the above’ that a better candidate would surface in a by-election. I think that’s quite unlikely.”

Overall, all panellists were disappointed by Dorscheid’s platform and campaign, but felt that the role was too critical to leave unfilled until the next by-election.

Who will win: three votes for Alex Dorscheid

Who should win: three votes for Alex Dorscheid