Students Voice What They’re Looking for in a New SU

By: Neda Hamed

@NedaHaamed

The SU elections will be held online for the first time by the Student Life Office tomorrow from 9am to 9pm, following the university’s closure in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis.

AUC President Francis Ricciardone recently said in an email to the community that “because the global contagion continues to accelerate, we must now step up our precautionary measures to strictly minimize the daily physical presence of all people”.

As a result, the Office of Student Life transferred the election ballots to an online platform that gives students only one chance to vote for the candidates on April 15.

Running this year 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.

Electoral Commissioner at the Student Life Office Amr Mohamed Mekawy told The Caravan that students have a great responsibility toward their vote, therefore, they need to elect whom they believe will serve better, and best represent the student body.

But many students who spoke to The Caravan said they hadn’t made up their minds who to vote for. Others said they wouldn’t vote at all.

Some, like Business junior Mohamed Mohsen, believe the SU should focus on being more representative of the student body.

“I wish for the SU to focus on the representation part of the Union more than the other branches. If we start the fall semester online, there won’t be a need to focus on the entertainment or services anyways, so they should focus on representing the student body,” Mohsen said.

Electronic Engineering Senior Dina Wahdan agrees. She sees that the SU should be “student-driven”.

“The representation must be strong. They need to have public speaking skills, and negotiation skills so they can convince people of their views,” Wahdan added.

Students are asking for a union that sees the issues for what they are, says Aya Nashad, a  Communication and Media Arts junior. She says that the current SU administration rose to the challenge of doing their best to help while everyone in AUC was quarantined, something she admires.

Senior director of the Office of Student Life Amal Salah says that every student should “vote for those who can uphold integrity under the toughest tests, because these tests will come when you least expect”.

For Petroleum Engineering senior Omar Sallam, the test was getting the university administration to factor in student concerns as it mapped out a learning strategy during the COVID-19 crisis.

“I think the SU has proven to be the most essential entity for students on campus, and after witnessing how they were able to convince the administration to apply the new grading scheme, as well as helping the dorm residents by providing them with essential supplies, we as students need to back them up even more and work collectively in establishing a student-to-union relation that would adhere to our demands as students, and have the ability and courtesy to disclose our requests in an appealing manner to the administration at any given situation,” Sallam told The Caravan.