Election candidates speak their mind, few attend
Tuition, UC hot topics at UMSU election forum
JENELLE PETRINCHUK STAFF
PHOTO CREDIT: JENELLE PETRINCHUK
Set right in the middle of University Centre, not many of the hundreds of students walking by stopped to listen to the platforms and previous experience of current UMSU election candidates and referendum representatives at this year’s election forum.
“I think it would have been nice if more people came,” said third-year arts student, Nicole Washington, after the forum “But people don’t care, obviously.”
Although all candidates are running unopposed — with the exception of the contested race for international students representative — a forum was held on Feb. 22 at the Fort Garry campus to inform students of what the University of Manitoba Students’ Union (UMSU) has planned for their next term.
Despite the low turnout, Washington maintained the forum was otherwise successful.
“Of course, they’re uncontested, there’s nothing that could have gone wrong for them,” she said.
Kyle Gilson, a second-year arts student, said he would have preferred more detail to the candidate’s answers when they were asked questions, adding they only gave “political answers.”
Questions from the audience were scarce — there were only approximately 15 people who attended the entire forum — with only a few directed towards UMSU’s take on tuition and the tuition fee freeze. Answers from the executive candidates included their promise to fight for more government funding and to protect the tuition fee freeze that has been in place in Manitoba for the past seven years.
Gilson is against the tuition fee freeze — one of the main platforms for the five-person executive slate, as well as a subject that UMSU has held an extensive focus on throughout the year.
“I think our university could be a lot more and if that means paying an extra $200 or more, I’m all for that,” he said, “I mean, if the university looks great and we get the education that we’re paying for then people are going to want to stay on campus and study instead of [the U of M] being a commuter campus.”
Another one of Sran’s platforms is his plan to revitalize University Centre. He explained that UMSU is planning on working closely with the university administration on the project and have already started meeting about it.
“I don’t think anything major has been done to this building since it was built, he said.
University Centre was built in 1970 and plays a central role at the U of M by providing a location for important services — the U of M Bookstore, Registrar’s Office and UMSU offices are all located in it — as well as a meeting/socializing space for students and faculty. However, with the growth of the university there has recently been a lack of the space in the building, especially for UMSU and UMSU-approved student groups, of which there are now 100. Sran said he hopes to investigate further into how the space in the building is divided into student-used and non-student-used space.
Just two of the five community representative candidates were present for the forum: students with disabilities representative-candidate Larry Baillie and international students representative-candidate Toyin Malumi. Malumi’s competitor Wang Dai Xin did not show up for the forum despite the fact he is running for the only contested position in the election.
Malumi promised to be a voice and connection to international students and the administration and touched on the subject of recent increases to international student differential fees. As of last year, international students pay a differential fee totalling 180 per cent more in tuition than domestic students at the U of M.
“I’m not saying I can bring down tuition,” said Malumi, “but if there’s a way that we can work around any of the issues that are concerning most of the international students here I definitely will pursue those options.”
Voting begins on Feb. 28 and runs until March 2, a period in which three UMSU student fee referendum questions will also be voted on. Representatives for Engineers Without Borders, the University of Manitoba Recycling and Environmental Group (UMREG) and icePIRG public-interest research group also presented their cases at the forum, which were generally well-received by the audience.
If all three referendums are voted in, students will be paying an additional $3.20 to UMSU, which will then be re-directed to each group.
