The Imprint General Election was held on Jan. 30 in the Black and Gold Room at the Student Life Center (SLC). Three candidates for president and two for vice president in the WUSA 2025 General Election participated in the debate. It’s crucial to understand each of them before casting your ballot between Feb. 3 and 9. Alex Chaban, Damian Mikhail, and Friday Saleh, the presidential candidates, partook in the debate. 

Alex Chaban is a fourth-year student in the knowledge and integration program. Chaban has decided to run because he feels like he can do the best job representing all undergraduate students. “ I believe that building that outstanding student experience is the most important service that WUSA can provide, keeping students central to all convos no matter how large or small,” he said. Chaban has two years of experience on the WUSA board of directors, which has given him the opportunity to see what works and what doesn’t. Friday Saleh, who uses they/them pronouns, is a fourth-year student in the geoscience program. Saleh has decided to run for a number of reasons, one of them being a personal incident they faced on campus. “I’ve had a slip and fall since then. I have been dealing with systems that don’t work and have had health issues, the snow was not shoveled and because of that negligence a whole year has gone by,” Saleh said. Saleh expressed how their priorities are to change UW’s campus culture to make sure everyone feels safe. Damian Mikhail is a fifth year statistics student. Mikhail is running with Team Horizon, composed of independent activists who have been involved in activism on the administrative level both locally and at the university. Mikhail has decided to run because he has seen some serious flaws with WUSA. “We have a lot of well-meaning directors on WUSA that are being held back by a governance system that does not align their interests with those of students so we need to see some real change,” he stated. Mikhail led the movement to bring back the night bus to Waterloo. 

Presidential candidates were asked about what they thought are the biggest issues on campus and what they plan to address if elected. Mikhail mentioned that there is a mental health crisis on campus and there isn’t much of a club culture as there should be. “It comes down to the fact that clubs only get $75 per term, it’s not enough. We haven’t made the change because directors did not have the knowledge or experience to make that change and because they are being held back by our governance system that creates a level of fear when it comes to change. I have the experience and have made a real material impact on students when it comes to advocacy and it’s time we bring that to the board.” Saleh followed, expressing that their biggest issues was the lack of community on campus. “It’s really hard to find community, we need a sense of community, and why I think I am the person for this job. I have been doing advocacy work. I sit on the campus wellness student advisory council where I have been advocating for trauma informed care,” they stated. Chaban’s biggest issues on campus was the lack of student input. He expressed how students aren’t given adequate opportunity to give input into decisions that affect their lives on campus. “I am interested in creating more opportunities for students to give input like our roundtables that I have worked on so students can come out and share their opinions. They can get direct one-on-one consultation with directors and senior staff,” he said.

Each presidential candidate communicated their specific goals for their time in office. Saleh emphasized how we need to increase inter-system efficiency. They stated, “let’s say you’re on a co-op term experiencing harassment and you go to a co-op harassment advisor another student might go to WUSA legal. They have different functions. A lawyer might tell you that you need to stay in this toxic environment because there is nothing you can do. A harassment advisor might say otherwise.” Saleh expressed how we need to increase access to information to students by posting infographics across campus. Mikhail’s goals for his time in office include looking into governance reform, which means adopting an interpretation of fiduciary duties that other universities have adopted. “We can see what has worked in other universities so the interests of the directors are aligned with those of the students. This also includes creating stricter requirements for the roles of directors so they actually have to show up to these meetings and fight for students,” he said. Mikhail mentioned how the club’s financing fee needs a revamp because $75 per term is not enough. “Our clubs are underfunded and it has an impact on our student mental health. Clubs are how students feel in touch with their universities and we have an issue on this end,” he said. Mikhail emphasized how he hopes to make the Bomber Lounge more than just a study space and bring back concerts. 

Chaban followed up on Mikhail’s Bomber Lounge comment, responding with, “I tend to lean away from the lounge because we see our candidates and winning candidates talk about bringing change for it and it doesn’t really get done. We have a 2022 strategic plan that needs more revamping and I agree with that but at the end of day that stuff is secondary. I am more interested in elevating our overall student engagement and that comes from internally and externally.” He then expressed how students should want to come with us and engage. One of Chaban’s goals is to have faster cheque processing times for clubs. “I have worked as a VP finance and ops for a club before and I know firsthand the nightmare of getting checks to process quicker,” he said. Chaban did agree with Mikhail that there needs to be more accountability for directors. Mikhail responded to Chaban by stating, “Yes, we have had directors that came in with big promises for reform and we haven’t seen it happen, especially with the Bomber Lounge. This is why I am here, because I have shown I can make real impactful change. It is why I am talking about governance reform because one big issue is that directors don’t put the work in.” Mikhail did concur with Chaban that we should do student roundtables, but we also need to visit the students, speak with them, visit their organizations, and find out what changes they would like to see. 

Presidential candidates were asked to expand on how they plan to address issues at the university. Chaban was asked how he would fix the issue of long check processing times. He answered by stating, “we do have the budget and the means to get another processing employee in and actually help process checks quicker, and get the physical groundwork done.” Mikhail was asked about how he would change governance and the Bomber Lounge. He expressed that we can look at other universities to understand how to better fund clubs and fix our governance system. Saleh was asked how they would work on inter-system efficiency and improving information on accessibility. They said, “What I think needs to be done is restructure caps, I was talking to another individual who worked here in 2020 who mentioned the idea so I want to give credit to them. We need an advocacy hub for students to come for peer support.” They conveyed how we need to incorporate the systems together so there is a sense of case management. 

 Mikhail has indicated he has experience in external advocacy efforts on Horizon’s platform page, but the president is primarily responsible for internal-oriented responsibilities. When asked how he would reconcile his experience with the primarily internal-oriented responsibilities of the president role, he stated, “When it comes to night transit and stopping cuts to the LRT it’s all included in my profile but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been deeply involved in internal advocacy. It’s important for the president that they know how to work with the board to get stuff done, and when we are talking about group horizon we are independent activists that have worked on stopping co-op fee increases and gender affirming care coverage.” 

Saleh was running for a director position based on her posters but decided to change to run for a presidential position the morning of the debate. A candidate cannot run for both positions because of WUSA exclusive bylaws. They explained that they changed their mind because they weren’t allied to use the WUSA poster run service. Saleh expressed how they have a walker and one of the main reasons as to why they are running is because campus is not accessible. “For two and half months the SLC door near the street was broken and sometimes I had to open it with my shoulder,” Saleh said. They also emphasized how they asked to use the specialized transportation program, but got sent to the general accessible transportation program. “They have treated me, as a person with a disability, like a volleyball from department to department and they ignore the fact that I have a 404 page grievance with the school,” Saleh said. Chaban was asked where students can make informed decisions about him as a candidate when he doesn’t currently have a laid out website or plan anywhere. He responded by saying that he is currently updating the candidate profile with a link to a google document to explain his three platform points. He also mentioned how his posters are hung up around campus and there’s a link to vote on there. 

The debate ended with closing remarks. Mikhail stated that, “Presidents will come in with these grand promises for change but then we won’t see that change. We have had issues with WUSA for a very long time. A lot of these issues are not new, but what Team Horizon brings is a group of independent activists who have shown that they can make real change even from outside of WUSA.” Saleh concluded by stating that, “WUSA is an organization that should work for the students and I hope to make that reality whether that is through creating a culture of inclusion or leveraging the assets that we already have. Also by making the system efficient and reducing the barriers to gaining institutional knowledge just to exist in this space.” Chaban’s concluding remarks emphasized how he has two years of experience consistently bringing results to students. “I’ve worked towards spearheading our long range planning putting forward such as our first concert we’ve seen in years and gathering more input events like our town halls and roundtables where students can come in and affect the change they want to see. I look forward to working with future members of directors running and I look forward to guiding them and mentoring them on how they manage WUSA together.”