Richard Walker

 I met Richard Walker in a secret room at MacEwan. I say secret because it’s a place where Walker can find alone time to study and work. “It’s empty and I can focus, because if I’m in the library, I end up talking. If I’m at the gym, I end up talking. If I’m in the hallway, I end up talking. And it’s not only students, but it is staff and it is faculty,” he says. 

Walker has been attending MacEwan since 2011. He has seen the immense changes of the institution. Buildings have gone up. Faculties, departments, and policies have changed. But he, among a select few, have remained constant. 

To increase grants and funding, Walker stresses the importance of building relationships with the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce. Walker says he spent at least two years studying the Chamber of Commerce’s model, and says he attended coffee chats to meet with directors. 

Walker likens the Chamber of Commerce as a “gold mine” for university grants. Currently, the Chamber lists over 3000 members.“You can get one grant from one company and have it under an umbrella of the Chamber of Commerce. That way, even if you know there’s startup companies that want to get their name out there, well, their name can go on that grant, but they’re underneath the Chamber of Commerce,” he says. 

Walker also says Aramark should lower food prices on campus. He recalls food prices at MacEwan were more affordable about ten years ago; however, instead of a linear pattern, food costs have instead risen “exponentially” over the years.

A multinational company, Aramark owns and operates most food facilities and catering at MacEwan. 

While Walker didn’t go into the specifics of how he’d accomplish this, he says his diverse work and learning experiences have given him the ability to communicate with different industries. Walker mentions he has years of work experience in various roles with the Oilers Entertainment Group. He has also worked for the YMCA and was a barista at a coffee shop. To add to his resume, Walker has volunteer experience with the Pride Centre of Edmonton. 

Lastly, Walker wants to continue advocating for equity, diversity, and inclusion on campus. According to him, “students will have an easier time studying, because they won’t have to worry about food. They won’t have to worry about where they’re living.” 

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Wilfrid Youbi Fansi

You might have run into vice-president (external) candidate Wilfrid Youbi Fansi on campus. He works at the library’s makerspace and is a part-time employee for SAMU student groups. On top of that, Youbi Fansi is a fifth-year student majoring in marketing. 

“I’ve always been well connected to the people who are on students’ council, people who are on the executive committee, people who are just very, very involved in campus,” says Youbi Fansi. 

“I’m a person who’s able to make these connections and make people able to understand my plight by connecting it to something of theirs.” 

Youbi Fansi says he’s paid attention to student’s council meetings over the past few years, and he spoke about how last year’s vacancy in the vice-president (external) role affected SAMUs presence at the Council of Alberta University Students (CAUS) and Canadian Alliance of Student Associations (CASA). Both serve as umbrella organizations for student unions to advocate for student interests on provincial and federal levels. 

Youbi Fansi says if elected, he would advocate for more financial awards. By taking a targeted approach, Youbi Fansi believes it will help alleviate affordability issues. 

“I treat the sickness, not the symptoms,” he says. 

Accountability, for Youbi Fansi, means having an open door policy. He knows students often direct their anger at SAMU or at MacEwan administration, but serving as a middle man of sorts, Youbi Fansi believes he can “create a more effective way of distributing complaints” by directing the student voice to the correct people. 

While Youbi Fansi says this approach will take more effort on his end, he believes it is worth doing because students have valid complaints that need to be addressed.

“Because the biggest, most effective way to gain support is just information,” says Youbi Fansi.  “Ignorance — It can take apart an organization very quickly.” 

Youbi Fansi notes that work integrated learning (WIL) has a presence on campus, where students work with organizations in and around Edmonton. However, he believes WIL can be expanded to the entire student body. 

Youbi Fansi’s vision seems to align with MacEwan’s. In it’s Strategic Vision 2030, MacEwan is looking to implement work integrated learning into all MacEwan programs. 

However, according to Youbi Fansi, students are not coming out of university with enough experience. “And I feel like there’s a big gap, because MacEwan has access to all these records of information, of businesses trying to reach them, a lot of community partners trying to reach them, but they’re limiting it to these working degree learnings,” he says. In his own experience, Youbi Fansi says he didn’t know what his degree would look like in the “real world.”  

On the other hand, increased work integrated opportunities would mutually benefit MacEwan by raising its prestige because students would be working with organizations in the community, Youbi Fansi says.  

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