The 2021 Rideau River Residence Association election will be taking place online on March 22 to 23. Students will elect three executives, including a president.
The Charlatan spoke with all three candidates running in this year’s election for the president position.
Mikaela Baumann, Renew
Previous experience
Baumann said she spends her summers facilitating “social justice and leadership programming” to help youth with disabilities for programs including KidsAbility in Waterloo, Ont., and Variety Village in Toronto.
“That’s kind of helped me develop a sense [for inclusivity] and bring to the forefront the need for inclusive, comprehensive programming,” Baumann said.
Baumann said she has also been a residence fellow over the past two years. As a residence fellow, she said she has learned how to have important conversations and connect with students and residence life directors.
Reasons for running
Baumann said she strives to create an inclusive and supportive environment everywhere she goes and sees RRRA as having the potential to create that type of community.
“I see [RRRA] as a good avenue that has a lot of potential that hasn’t always been utilized to create the most impact for the larger community on residence,” she said.
Slate or independent
Baumann said running as a team allows for multiple sets of eyes to review ideas.
“It allows you to explore ideas you may have not thought of,” she said.
Baumann said when first considering running as a slate with Bijoy Arora and Sama Russel, the group realized they believed the same things about what is wrong with RRRA and shared a vision of how to fix these problems.
Campaign goals
Baumann said her broad goal is to make residence an inclusive space where everyone feels comfortable exploring their identity.
To accomplish that, Baumann said she would form an equity committee separate from RRRA council and entrench the committee in the constitution. The goal would be to ensure “all voices are accounted for” before anything is passed.
She said another one of her goals is electoral reform.
“I think that the elections process can be inaccessible, but it’s also very beneficial when you do get involved,” she said.
Baumann said some candidates get an unfair advantage by having more campaign volunteers than other candidates. To solve this problem, Baumann said she wants to put a cap on the number of volunteers “so that everyone has an even playing field.”
Final pitch
Baumann said she is running because she is a student who feels she’s not getting the most out of student organizations.
“I want to change that,” she said. “I have the experiences. I have the passions. I have the skills.”
Greg Dance, independent
Previous experience
Dance said he served as a councillor for the Carleton Academic Student Government (CASG) and helped support CASG’s push for compassionate grading and the Ravens Academic Relief Bursary.
Dance has also served on the Carleton Science Student Society council as a neuroscience department representative, where he said he was “very vocal” about workload concerns.
“My work there in the first semester directly resulted in the workload of a lot of STEM classes being significantly reduced,” he said.
Dance was also recently elected as a faculty of science councillor for the Carleton University Students’ Association. As a student this year, Dance pressed CUSA council and executives to hold a second FundQi referendum.
“Students have seen what I’m doing and they’re liking it and they want me to continue,” Dance said.
Reasons for running
Dance said he is running for RRRA president to restore trust in the association because “there’s not much of it.”
“There hasn’t been a year that I’ve been able to find that hasn’t had some sort of electoral controversy,” Dance said. “RRRA has been used as an incubator to sort of nurture and grow the next generation of CUSA executives.”
As RRRA president, Dance said he would implement “rigorous” electoral reform, like banning slates because they dilute the influence of independent candidates.
Slate or independent
Dance said he “strongly disagrees” with the concept of slates. Because of the online nature of the campaign this year, Dance said independent candidates have a real chance of winning.
Campaign goals
Dance said his campaign focuses on mental health, electoral reform, and collaboration between different campus organizations.
He said RRRA and Housing and Residence Life Services have not done enough to support residence students’ mental health, especially during the pandemic.
He said he wants to certify all residence fellows in mental health first aid to make sure those in residence, especially first-year students away from home for the first time, maintain good mental health.
On electoral reform, Dance said he would pursue banning slates and campaigning in the tunnels.
“It’s disruptive,” Dance said of tunnel campaigning. “The online school year has already shown that campaigning online is possible and actually more equitable.”
On campus organizations working together, Dance said he would push for RRRA to have more influence on events like Panda Game and for other campus organizations to host events targeted at residence students.
Another part of this collaboration would be working with the university to establish a stronger COVID-19 plan, Dance said.
Final pitch
Dance said he has a history of making his promises a reality.
“If elected, I will be the very first independent candidate of [RRRA],” he said. “I have a track record of making real change happen.”
Sami Islam, Advance
Previous experience
Islam has lived on residence for three years and has been a residence fellow for two years. As a residence fellow, he said he has sat on the residence life budget committee.
Islam was a RRRA councillor during his first year in residence.
He said he has spent a lot of time looking at the RRRA budget “to inform my plans for what [our slate] wants to do with the executive next year.”
Reasons for running
Islam ran for vice-president (student issues) in the Carleton University Students’ Association election last month as part of the Students First slate, but lost to Valentina Vera González of Ravens United.
He said he was hesitant to run for RRRA president because the CUSA election was “a very taxing experience,” but that his running mates on the Advance slate, Mira Gillis and Gialina Jiang, convinced him to run.
“I’ve always had these visions for residence and I’ve spoken about them at length,” Islam said. “The biggest reason I ran was because … I do think [residence] is an unfinished experience.”
Slate or independent
Islam said he has experience as a residence fellow, but running as a team allows him to see and understand the experience of two first-year residence students, Gillis and Jiang.
“I am missing out on the student-at-large pulse,” Islam said. “We complement each other and we all know what we all bring to the table.”
Campaign goals
Islam said his primary goal is to establish a supervised space for students in residence to go to when they feel unsafe while intoxicated. He said the idea comes from the campus observation room at Queen’s University.
“I’ve always felt uncomfortable leaving my friends in their rooms when they’re [intoxicated],” he said.
Islam said if elected, the Advance slate would contribute its summer executive benefits to pay for its goals.
He said his broader goal is to maintain some sort of the normalcy of the residence experience for students, despite COVID-19 restrictions.
Final pitch
Islam said his slate put a lot of time into their proposals and are prepared to govern.
“We are ready to hit the ground running,” Islam said. “We kinda know what we want to do and how we want to do it.”
