GSA presidential candidate: Dewa Mangal
The Manitoban: Why are you running for this position and what experience do you bring?
Dewa Mangal: I have some leadership skills and work experience in the field and I also want to make positive changes for students. I have a background in management and leadership and I have also studied some business administration. I studied my undergraduate in business administration. Where I studied in the U.S. I have worked for some different organizations, such as the United Nations, the British Embassy, the Norwegian Afghanistan committee, and the African Women Network and in all of these positions I was leading programs and projects. [ . . . ]
M: What plans/goals do you have if elected into this position?
D.M.: First of all I want to make the organization very powerful, make it very organized and structured. [ . . . ] I got part of my education in Afghanistan, part of my education was in Pakistan and part of my education was in the U.S., now in Canada. [ . . . ] That makes it easier for me to understand everybody else’s concerns and expectations. I speak four languages, that’s another advantage. When it comes to the goals, I want to integrate some of the opportunities that students have in the U.S. that I don’t see over here. For example if we look at the academic facilities, over here all students don’t have a lot of choices in terms of selecting or getting enrolled in different classes and in different times [ . . . ]. For example, a student has a pre requisite for one of his classes, and that class is not offered this term and he has to wait another term [so] once he takes that class he is behind by one semester. In that case, most of the time they cannot reach their goal the way they planned things. That is one thing. [Also] they do not have the area of internships for the graduate level.
GSA presidential candidate: Tim Melnyk (We Are Responsible)
The Manitoban: Why are you running for this position and what experience do you bring?
Tim Melnyk: This year was my first year in the GSA so my experience with them so far is acting as a councilor for my department of sociology, so I have done that and I have also worked with the internal development and review committee and it has actually been a fortuitous position to be there just because it gave me a chance to really get a glimpse into the inner workings of the GSA.
M: What plans/goals do you have if you are elected into the position?
T.M.: The first thing I would like to accomplish is really to bring things back to the constitution. One thing I’ve had a chance to notice, and I think anyone who has been part of the council this year will notice, is that there has been a real breakdown from the GSA to the executive and surely its spreading into the council as well. [ . . . ]
[International students are] charged three times the tuition that a Canadian citizen would pay up front, but there are more subtle reasons [to support them], like they come to Canada without a support network, they don’t necessarily have the same support network of friends and family and that kind of thing and basically they’re facing a lot of challenges that you’re average Canadian citizen wouldn’t face.
[ . . . ]
GSA presidential candidate: Meaghan Labine (Praxis)
The Manitoban: Why are you running for this position and what experience do you bring?
Meaghan Labine: [ . . . ] When I first started in my master’s I was president of the medical microbiology students’ association for two years. In my last year of master’s I became president of Health Sciences students’ association and this is my third year as president for Health Sciences Grad Students’ Association and throughout that time it just became apparent that there were a lot of changes that needed to be made. [ . . . ] I think it’s time that there’s a more integrated approach and vision for the GSA that involves bringing together the Health Sciences and Fort Garry students into one unified group as opposed to what’s been happening in the past. [ . . . ] I genuinely think that because we’ve got a lot of experience, that because we know the system, we can implement a lot of the things on our platform relatively efficiently compared to what we did before. We have a vision for how we want the GSA to represent the students. I think I can bring a lot to the table in terms of experience, having knowledge of the Health Sciences graduate students as well as Fort Garry graduate students. We do have a vision for what we want.
M: What plans/goals do you have if elected into this position?
M.L.: [ . . . ] Of course one of the main ones is student rights, so lobbying for increased grants, scholarships and financial support for students, assisting our membership to get paid properly and be able to navigate through the financial fiasco that sometimes happens within the university administration. [ . . . ] We work for our supervisors not in the typical sense of working, but we’re expected to do a job and when you’re expected to do that there is a lot of graying of the lines between what’s expected and what isn’t and about getting paid properly. We think that needs a lot of attention.
Also, things like student housing, particularly for international students and anybody coming over to the Health Sciences, there’s not really a network there to allow students to find a place, to rent a place cheaply.
The other thing we have is equality for international students. As everybody is aware, differential fees always go up, tuition fees always go up and just in general how they are treated on campus we don’t agree with. [ . . . ]
We’ve got community building. [Graduate students are] all at the point where it’s about professional development and there are not enough things that promote graduate students getting together either in an academic setting or say a sports setting where a lot of that collaboration and interaction can take place. [ . . . ]
That we can address issues like the public transit issue, that’s another major thing on our platform. We don’t think that Winnipeg Transit is properly servicing the students of the university. [ . . . ]
GSA vice-president external candidate: Arman Vahedi (We Are Responsible)
The Manitoban: Why are you running for this position?
Arman Vahedi: I was actually senator last year for the GSA and also I was an active member of the campaign committee, which is the main committee that is chaired by the Vice President external and I’m running for this position because I think I have good experience from last year and also I was in one Canadian Federation of Students annual general meeting, and I have good experience in being involved in the sub committee to see what’s going on in the CFS. [ . . . ]
M: What plans or goals do you have if elected to this position?
A.V.: Actually bad things have happened in the last months of the GSA. Some of the exec members and also the council were not on the track of following the constitution perfectly. Our goal is to bring the GSA on track to follow the constitution and by-laws literally. [ . . . ] One of our main concerns is to address the problems of the students financially, especially international students, to try and campaign and discuss the funding they get from the university. Because the funding has been the same for a very, very long time for scholarships, but the cost of living has increased so we can see that’s typical. [ . . . ]
GSA vice-president external candidate: Liz Gonsalves (Praxis)
The Manitoban: Why are you running for this position and what experience do you bring?
Liz Gonsalves: Most of my experience comes from student governance when I went to Seneca College. I was also the VP external when I was on the HS GSA last year. Because it was also the external position, it’s similar. It crosses over. It’s just a wider range now.
M: What plans/goals do you have if elected into this position?
L.G.: Specifically looking at some of the financial issues that [graduate] students are facing, with regards to getting paid properly on time.
GSA vice-president external: Naresh Singh Redhu
The Manitoban: Why are you running for this position and what experience do you bring?
Naresh Singh Redhu: I am a PhD student in immunology and currently a VP academic at the Health Science Graduate Students’ Association. I’ve seen a couple of things which came to my attention during the last two or three years — that there is not enough outreach in the committee from the grad students’ association here. There is not enough collaboration between different student groups and student associations. I wanted to work on that side and to bring all the students to one platform and make a stronger community at the university.
M: What plans/goals do you have if elected into this position?
N.S.R.: The first one is to work towards increased funding for the graduate students in terms of travel awards [and] bursaries, which is the main component I am looking forward to. The second one would be [that . . . ] we have to keep on pressing the government to freeze the tuition fee increase. There are a couple of others such as the increased differential fee for the international graduate student, which does not make sense. [ . . . ]
GSA vice-president academic candidate: Peter Nawrot (Praxis)
The Manitoban: Why are you running for the position and what experience do you bring?
Peter Nawrot: I’m running for this position because really I care about students and having their needs addressed. I’ve been involved with senate and student governments now for four years. So as long as I’m a student I want to partake and help out students. [ . . . ] There has been many things that have happened in the past year as vice president academic [of the Health Science GSA] and it’s been a big learning curve, and I’ve learnt a lot and, going forward, I’ll be able to do a better job because of the fact that I know now what’s expected of me and I know where we can do better.
M: What goals or plans do you have if elected into this position?
P.N.: My goals and plans are two tiered, the first tier being taking a look at the Graduate Students Association as a whole to make sure that we have the proper infrastructure, [ . . . for example, ] enhancing the technologies that we have to be able to function and communicate better as an organization. [The second is] to always bring [students’] concerns forward and not only bring those concerns forward in the positions that I hold, but to actually make those concerns heard and be a part of the decision making process to empower students.
GSA vice-president academic candidate: Justin Jones (We Are Responsible)
The Manitoban: Why are you running for the position and what experience do you bring?
Justin Jones: I come from a political science background and I have been on a couple of councils from political science. I was the treasurer of the political science student union two years ago and currently I’m the graduate student rep for SAMPA, which is the Student Association for the Master of Political Science and Public Administration. So that’s my experience from council.
[ . . . ] I felt that there seemed to be a lot of infighting in the executive council and it didn’t seem that they were really representing students to the best of their abilities. It really wasn’t a harmonious student council. So I thought I could come on and try to be more independent and open my mind up to various motions and what not. [ . . . ]
M: What are your goals?
J.J.: We’re more looking out for the international students’ rights and responsibilities. They’re different in the sense that they’re not from here, so they generally have a tougher time than most Canadian students in achieving their rights and goals. [ . . . Also ] there is a big separation [between the GSA and the HSGSA], so one of my goals is to just get both bodies working together effectively. That means the little things, like co-hosting events, but the biggest thing is getting our constitution and bylaws together and just abiding by them, because there was a lot of misrepresentation by both bodies this year.
GSA vice-president Health Sciences candidate: Pawan Sharma (Praxis)
The Manitoban: Why are you running for this position and what experience do you bring?
Pawan Sharma: I was a Senator in GSA for 2007-08. I was also involved in my Pharmacy degree back home in India. I was vice-president of the photographic society and the fine arts society. I was an advisor in fine arts. I had around five years of experience there doing my undergrad and my master’s. I’ve [had] almost six to seven years total with student activities or managing students, speaking about their rights and involving all those activities. I was also a senator here on the senate committee for Libraries at the U of M. I was also a student representative for CIHR, national training program in allergy and asthma. I was also secretary for AllerGen, a network for researchers in allergy and asthma across Canada. [ . . . ]
M: What plans or goals do you have if elected into this position?
P.S.: I thought about student rights for health sciences students, lobby for student grants, scholarships and other financial support is very important. [ . . . ] The second point is to improve the transit. This is an ongoing problem on both campuses. [ . . . ] Obviously, equality for international students — they get a lot of differential fees.
GSA vice-president internal candidate: Majid Ostadrahimi (We Are Responsible)
The Manitoban: Why are you running for this position and what experience do you bring?
Majid Ostadrahimi: [ . . . ] In addition to representing graduate students in university Senate, I was a member of finance committee, which is directly related to the VP internal position that I’m running for. One of my goals was to improve GSA as much as possible. Redesigning the web site and monitoring the website statistics was among our improvements. Also, by organizing the pool night social for the first time, I realized that such activities increase our graduate student networking abilities and encourage them more to get involve in their big family.
M: What plans/goals do you have if elected into this position?
M.O.: My plans are included in the goal of our slate and my teammates, which is going back to basics. I’m mostly thinking to organize more interesting activities to encourage graduate students to be involved. Also, I believe that web site communications has a significant weighting for our members and improving the website more, is also one of my goals.
GSA vice-president internal candidate: Farhoud Delijani (Praxis)
The Manitoban: Why are you running for this position and what experience do you bring?
Farhoud Delijani: I started having the feeling that GSA has a lot more capacity for doing things for students, but they’re not using the full capacity. That came from my visit to HS GSA events on some occasions because my wife studies there. I was there for some teaching workshops that they had and have currently. I started thinking, “Why don’t we have these kind of events at the [Fort Garry] GSA?” That’s one of the main reasons. The other one is that there are issues with CUPE 3909 and student rights. [ . . . ] I personally have years of experience in management back in Iran, been member of board of directors in several companies and organizations. [ . . . ]
M: What plans or goals do you have if elected into this position?
F.D.: Definitely working with other team members and have a close working relationship with them because as far as I know there has been problems with the former team of GSA. We really need to work together, that’s one thing. The second thing would be finding really, really reliable resources and working on bringing in more profit for GSA.
GSA senator candidate: Ning Ma (Praxis)
The Manitoban: Why are you running for this position and what experience do you bring?
Ning Ma: I am running for this position because I am a Chinese student. I want more Chinese at GSA activities and more of their voice being heard. I have worked in China for two years and I worked at a student group at the University of Manitoba as the president for one year. I think I can contribute to GSA.
M: What are your plans if elected into this position?
N.M.: My plan isn’t large but I want to see what I can actually do. First, I plan to speak for and lobby for students’ rights such as looking for more grants for graduate students. I want to better student-funded services. Secondly, I want to help with community building, especially for student groups. Finally, as an international student, I want to work for equality for international students.
GSA senator candidate: Mohammad Al-Amin Sadek (Praxis)
The Manitoban: Why are you running for this position and what experience do you have?
Mohammad Al-Amin Sadek: I am running because I have previous experience in working with the student union in Thailand where I did my Master’s. Also, I was association president of the university students. I am particularly interested here because I found some problems, especially for international students like tuition fees so I want to work on that so that at least the students have some facilities, particularly international students.
M: What are your plans if you are elected into this position?
M.A.S.: My plan is implement what I am thinking and I am telling. We are working for all the students and in particularly for students’ rights.
GSA senator candidate: Azin Shahab (We Are Responsible)
The Manitoban: Why are you running for this position and what experience do you bring?
Azin Shahab: I am running for this position because I believe we have a good team of candidates. I hope together we can achieve our first goal, which is bringing GSA back to its constitution amongst executive and council and improving communication between council and executive. Also, we will try to improve the communication between two campuses. [ . . . ]
M: What are your plans if elected into this position?
A.S.: If I get elected, along with the VPA, I will do my best to represent students’ academic, financial and social needs in the senate. Also, one of my main concerns is special needs and problems of international students.
GSA senator candidate: Raja Chakraborty (Praxis)
The Manitoban: Why are you running for this position and what experience do you have?
Raja Chakraborty: I am a graduate from Australia National University. I spent two years in Australia and when I was studying there were lots of student activities. To specify a few, I was a senior resident in one of the halls. Senior residents are people who have leadership qualities and people are selected on basis of marks and how they carry themselves throughout the year. [ . . . ] Besides that, there were different committees there. I was heading one committee, the sports committee. I was a member of four other committees, like the editorial board committee. Besides that, we use to do ANU green projects, the ANU green committee. I’ve been here in Manitoba for three months at the U of M. I was thinking I should so something here too so I joined the Graduate Students’ Association, which is similar to what I used to do back in Australia.
M: What are you plans if elected into this position?
RC: What I have experienced back in Australia I’ll bring some of them here, that is the first thing. Secondly, follow all the principles and what are given in the guidelines for the senator.
