Deqa Elmi
Like most candidates in this year’s elections, affordability is her biggest concern, but part of why Deqa Elmi is running as vice-president (academic) is so she can push for more diversity and representation in MacEwan’s academics.
Elmi is running for the first time in this year’s executive committee elections. She’s a first-year student in the bachelor of commerce student and hasn’t yet declared her major or minor. Before MacEwan, she was at the University of Alberta.
Now at MacEwan, she hopes to make an impact.
“As a student who aligns herself with multiple minorities, I understand the barriers that a lot of students end up facing,” Elmi says. “I want to be a voice for some real change.”
She says that MacEwan can play a bigger role in inclusivity. Much of the curriculum for example, in English, focuses mostly on old texts from cisgendered white men, Elmi says. If elected she’d push for MacEwan academics to include more modern texts from BIPOC and 2SLGBTQIA+ folks. Not just for representation but for awareness too.
“I feel like it’s not a great time to be ignorant to peoples’ issues, especially in the modern world,” Elmi says.
Cutting costs around textbooks has been a common theme surrounding the vice-president (academic)’s office, and while Elmi wants to keep pushing for more of what’s already in place (like open-source textbooks), she wants to find more ways for students to sell and trade their learning materials to help save money.
She floats some ideas around as we chat, one being a designated platform where students can buy, trade, and sell their textbooks. Another idea is for more of an event where folks can buy and sell their old textbooks.
“Like a book-fair type situation,” Elmi says.
While other candidates haven’t mentioned issues around exams, Elmi says she’s interested in addressing scheduling concerns around midterms.
One thing in particular that irked Elmi, was when she had to take four exams on the same day. She says it’s not just her who’s had to deal with the multiple exams problem. When asked about how she’d go about fixing it she suggested that a system similar to final exams could work for midterms to avoid too many exam days crossing over.
A system like this of course, would have to be brought to the general faculties council, which is already struggling to find enough time in the fall schedule for final exams.
On the topic of artificial intelligence at the university, Elmi says it’s here to stay, but it shouldn’t be used in every class or assignment.
“The temptation of using AI, in assignments and whatnot is really high. So I feel like we should just support it, rather than trying to control it so much.”
Looking at the current three-option strategy — where MacEwan provides instructors with the option to pick three from three boilerplate policies on AI — Elmi says there is a good foundation, but there needs to be more done still.
“I feel like we could move towards a more clear ground between what classes and what faculties do and don’t accept AI,” Elmi says.
She’s calling for more transparency on how and when the university decides AI should be used, and better communication to students.
Chioma Uzor
Out of all the candidates for SAMU vice-president (academic), Chioma Uzor has the most experience in MacEwan student governance, having sat on students’ council since May 2023. She says this is what gives her the edge on her campaign’s promises.
Uzor is a fifth-year psychology student, with a minor in political science. As a candidate for SAMU’s executive committee, the biggest topic of the day is affordability.
“We are in a financial crisis,” Uzor says.
If elected, she says she’ll hammer down hard on cutting costs around textbooks. She’ll double down on advocacy for the existing textbook affordability program (a MacEwan program which gives grants for struggling students) and promote other ways to cut costs on textbooks via SAMU awareness campaigns.
She’ll also pick up where the current vice-president (academic) is leaving off, and advocate for the textbook support fund, which she says was just a one-semester thing, to continue for every single year.
As a student with a disability, another concern for Uzor are the resources available for students like her. She says MacEwan’s accessibility office offers great support, but lengthy wait times that she wants to trim down.
Often by the time many students realize they need accommodations, it’s too late. So part of her work will be advocating for less red tape, and educating students to give themselves enough time to apply for accessibility and disability resources (ADR) supports.
The third item of Uzor’s campaign has been one of academia’s greatest headaches. The two AIs — artificial intelligence and academic integrity — are mixing like water and oil and Uzor says MacEwan needs to get rid of the murk.
“I feel like that type of stress is too much on students right now,” Uzor says.
When it comes to things like ChatGPT or even Grammarly, which is offered to all MacEwan students, Uzor says there needs to be clearer guidelines in place.
If elected, she will be relying on the connections she’s made as a students councillor, and also when she was the co-president of the Black students alliance of MacEwan University (BSA) to help her tackle these items.
“I have a lot of advocacy experience,” Uzor says. “Being part of the students council and being part of BSA as well, they were all amazing mixes — I got to understand the perspectives of students much better.”
Her time on the BSA, she says, also helped her better know the needs of marginalized students, who she says she’ll also work to advocate for.
Uzor says there were times she wished there was something she could do to students who felt uncomfortable on campus, but she’s looking forward to having fewer limitations in fighting racism and advocating for underrepresented students if she’s elected.
In many ways, like her focus on affordability and accessibility, Uzor’s campaign is an echo of the work done this past year by the current vice-president (academic).
Nickki Kamprath
Nickki Kamprath is running to be SAMU vice-president (academic), with a platform based upon ensuring accessibility for all students, the rethinking of AI to clear its misconceptions and students’ fear of being improperly persecuted for AI plagiarism, and having pre-existing relations with MacEwan faculty.
Kamprath started out in a university prep program before finishing her honour of psychology. “My journey hasn’t been perfect,” she said, adding that she can relate to other students who did not start off immediately fresh from high school.
As a first-generation university student, Kamprath found that university life can be isolating, despite that ‘getting people to connect with each other’ and other resources can be very fundamental to students’ academic journey. “I’m aware of the opportunities that are available for students, but also the opportunities that aren’t or are not easy for students as well.”
From the research she’s presented at conferences, to her platform itself, Kamprath is knowledgeable about student affairs and accessibility to all students. The inflexibility of the classroom times & types is something she needs so badly addressed, particularly how students, no matter if they were taking online asynchronous or hybrid courses, are expected to be on campus for exams. She also wants deadlines to be less rigid and extension deadlines to be chosen by students rather than faculty. “I’ve been a TA … I’ve been a research assistant as well, so I’ve been involved in the faculty side of MacEwan as well as being a student.”
Mentioning last year’s “reading break fiasco where MacEwan was thinking about not having a reading break anymore,” as a source of inspiration, Kamprath hopes to be just as powerful a voice for students, by running for VP academic. Kamprath believes that SAMU is, “always doing their best to make sure students are getting what students want and need,” and hopes to continue their legacy of being “student-centered.”
“We should be proud of even just being here, just being a student. Even if you haven’t done anything you think is noteworthy, just you being here is enough.”
To end off with the interview, I asked Kamprath which fictional character best represented her work ethic, and received a chuckle. “Uzumaki Naruto from the anime Naruto, famously, because he never gives up,” she finally replied after a pause. “His motto is that, he never gives up on his friends, on his dreams, on his goals, and I say that because I love Naruto, but also because I just, if I decide to do something, I’m going to put my hundred percent, hundred and ten percent into it, like, no matter what.”
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