Students head to the polls for DSU elections

After a week’s worth of campaigning, contenders in this year’s DSU elections now await your verdict.

Voting for the DSU elections begins this Saturday, March 21, with the online polls remaining open until 11:59 p.m. Tuesday evening. The vote follows a week in which all candidates made the rounds through the Dal community, making their case for why they deserve to represent Dal’s student body across a number of different roles. They’ve written platforms, made great plans and shared their visions at election events such as this past Monday's all-candidates debate.

Full election details (and candidate info): dsu.ca/elections

Positions up for grabs

While two of the five DSU executive elections have candidates running unopposed – Kaitlynne Lowe for VP internal and incumbent Mahbubur Rahman for VP finance and operations — the other three feature multiple strong contenders.

In the VP academic and external race, the hot button topic seems to be approaches to student debt. Cody Couture’s platform is to lobby the federal and provincial governments to convert student loans to student grants and to advocate for a raised cap on student loans/grants. His opponent, John Hutton, believes in pushing for a zero-fee tuition system, in line with the discussion sparked recently by CBU President David Wheeler.

This year there are three candidates for VP student life. While Hani Salem was not available to attend Monday’s debate, his Facebook group makes his case for an inclusive approach to student engagement. The other two candidates both came into this election with noted experience. Kathleen Reid has been involved extensively with O-week and Dalhousie recreation, while Ali Bee Calladine has been involved in O-Week, co-organized the February 4 Day of Action and ran the recent SUBfest music festival.

Then there’s the top leadership position in the DSU: the president. Two candidates are up for the role this year. Daniel Nicholson is the newcomer to DSU politics, with a reform-based platform based around visibility, representation and services. His opponent is current DSU vice-president internal Jennifer Nowoselski, whose platform focuses on her experience, on communication and on accountability.

Also up for grabs in the election are student positions on Dal’s two governing bodies: Senate and the Board of Governors. Vying for the available Board seat are Anthony Sailkali and Yazan Matarieh. Contenders for the three available Senate seats are Ademofe Oye-Adeniran, Ahmet Emre Harsa, Jad Sinno, Jeremy Banks, Liam Hunt, Scott Rairdan and Sarah Dobson. (Learn more about all the candidates on the DSU elections website.)

Referendum questions

One more item to consider for this year’s election is the slate of referendums, each of them based around levies for student groups.

Community radio station CKDU-FM is asking for a levy increase of 25 cents per semester for full-time students and 50 cents per semester for part-time students to support its costs. The Dalhousie outdoor society is asking for a levy of 50 cents per semester for full-time students and 25 cents per semester for part-time students to support creation of all-student outdoor programming. DalOut, which offers education, support, advocacy and services to those who experience oppression based on sexual orientation and gender expression, is requesting a levy increase of 25 cents per semester from both full- and part-time students. And South House Sexual & Gender Resource Centre is asking for confirmation of the levy increase that received a “yes” vote last year (an increase of $1.43/semester for full-time students 83 cents/semester for part-time students) but had formatting errors in the levy question. (Note that the final three of these questions apply only to the Halifax campuses.)

Read the referendum questions in full here.

With so many important issues on the table this year, it’s time for students to really get out, vote and show support for the issues that matter to them.

Voting starts at 12:01 a.m. Saturday morning and runs until 11:59 p.m. Tuesday night. Have your say at dsu.ca/vote