Conversations With SU Presidential Candidate AbdelMoneim Mansour
By: Dana Farouk
@danahfarouk
The Student Union (SU), the highest executive body and authority of the General Assembly, represents, serves and develops diverse student bodies by organizing different academic and social programs and events, and communicating with the university on their behalf.
Voting for the next president and vice-president of the SU will be conducted virtually on April 15. The candidates are Ahmed Saeed for president and Youssef Gomaa as vice-president on one ticket; and Abdelmoniem Mansour for president and Sara Essam as vice-president on the other.
The Caravan interviewed Mansour to learn more about his plans if he wins the elections.
Q- What encouraged you to run for president?
A- In the past few years, I feel that my experience in the Student Union has been a prosperous one where I have been pushed by many leaders in office, both men and women, to develop myself. Keeping that in mind, I feel very grateful to those who have helped me along the way, and therefore, I feel it is only right to give back to the community and pave the way for future candidates to run for this prestigious position that I humbly run for.
Q- What do you think makes you stand out as a candidate?
A- As a candidate, I believe my strong human resources background aids me in achieving the main objective that Sara and I have set for next year, which is, uniting the student body. As the chairperson of the Human Resources Committee, I have seen first-hand the family of the Student Union grow year by year.
It has grown from encompassing just the cabinet, to including the General Managers, to including the members, and hopefully, next year, it shall include every student body on campus. Moreover, as a General Manager for the Research and Analytics Project, not only do I promise a data-driven union, I believe I am a candidate who has the previous experience of doing so.
Q- What is a struggle that you think comes with being president?
A- I believe that, as president, many fellow students might sometimes forget that their elected leader is, at the end of the day, a student as well. I feel that the topic of mental health for those who are assuming a position of leadership such as the President of the Student Union might be considered taboo, yet, this needs to change.
I feel that the stress accompanied with this job is immense, therefore, I firmly believe that I had to mention this subject in my debate speech to inform future candidates, presidents and vice-presidents, that it is definitely okay to feel drained and tired. It is for the aforementioned reasons that mental health is of the utmost importance to all students, even those running for office. Presidents and vice-presidents are not immune to stress, therefore, they need to be aware of the best ways to handle such situations without negatively impacting their mental health.
Q- What is a problem that you think exists in the election process?
A- Asides from the mental strain discussed above, another issue accompanying the election process is the electoral code. There are many concerns that have been raised due to this electoral code, with the prominent one being the fact that there shall be no “campaigning with the gender of a candidate or political affiliation.”
I believe this clause to be very problematic, since, whilst proudly running with a female vice-president, one must note that this clause is a means to silence female empowerment, which she hoped to address.
I believe Sara could bring more insight to this matter, yet, to give a brief overview over this predicament, one of the main reasons Sara plans on running for office is because she was in awe of previous strong females in power, and she hoped to reciprocate this notion with the rest of her gender, yet, because of this clause, she feels silenced and enraged.
Also, as candidates running for a political office such as the Student Union, how can talks about political affiliations be stricken from the record and be considered a violation? The electoral code, in my eyes, is a grave issue that should have been looked over in more detail.
Q- How do you plan on making decisions when you are president? Who’s voice will you take into account?
A- As mentioned above, as a previous General Manager for the Research and Analytics Project, I, Abdelmoniem Mansour, do not plan on taking decisions, instead, each and every student will be taking the decisions. My previous experience has shed light on the different means that one can collect data from the students, achieving my objective of a data-driven union. The Student Union is first and foremost a means to cater to students, therefore, all decisions, whether political or events-related shall be taken by the students.
This, in other words, entails inclusivity of the student body in all decisions. A few examples of the aforementioned would be: student input on political stances, student input on the performers of an event and student input on the types of training to be provided. To cater for the students, one must not neglect or negate the input of a single student.
Q- What do you think is the greatest challenging issue that exists in our community at AUC? And who is most affected by it?
A- To answer this question in a wholesome manner, there is one specific change that must take place on campus, and that change revolves around the administration. To explain, many students feel that they do not trust the Student Union due to a few shortcomings in the previous years; moreover, many students do not carry the same ferocity and passion that students demonstrated in previous years.
This in no way is the fault of the students; instead, it is the fault of the administration that belittles the students, and the Student Union, in most decisions that they make. The administration has been opposing the students, with no regards to the consequences that could befall them.
Therefore, my main area of focus will be uniting the student body in order to revive the current student spirit, forcing the administration to submit to the unforeseen power of a united student body.
Q- Do you have any plans in regards to sustainability on campus?
A- Building on this year’s Student Social Responsibility project within the Student Union, the Student Union must not only promote sustainable practices on campus but also sustainable practices within the Student Union. The project will help restructure projects in order to ensure that sustainability is heavily taken into account.
Examples of such partnering with important stakeholders such as the Office of Sustainability and Office of Undergraduate research, we aim to create a fund to promote research for prospecting students within the domain of sustainability. In short, we plan to make sustainability on campus something more than mere on-the-ground awareness campaigns that have mediocre impact.
