Second-year mathematics student Samir Sharma is getting ready to enter a new era as the new WUSA president. Previously a WUSA director from 2025-2026, Sharma decided to run for presidency. What he, perhaps, didn’t quite expect was being the sole candidate to put his name in the running, essentially running unopposed in his bid for presidency. Sharma shared his perspectives on why he decided to run for presidency, what he hopes to accomplish over the next year, and how it feels to be running unopposed.

Deciding to run

When asked what inspired him to run for president, Sharma touched on the current unprecedented budget deficit, adding that “both the president, provost, head of research, head of AVBA, head of academics are all gone in the next 16 months.” During his time as director, he noticed that many new faces have joined the team over the past year. “I think even though we’ve done a lot this year on board, there’s always more to do, there’s always new problems and we need to act,” he added. As president, Sharma aspires to act on these problems and do what he can to “really push the [organization] forward.”

Sharma’s vision for upcoming year

Currently in his 2B term, Sharma intends to take a year-long co-op placement to run for the presidency. When asked about his potential goals as president, he described being in favour of reforming the Undergraduate Senate Caucus and creating a policy on the rights of undergraduate research assistant (RA) and teaching assistant (TA) students. Currently, only graduate students at UW have established RA and TA policies in place, whereas undergraduate students lack this protection. He also hopes to modernize the Student Life Center (SLC) Great Hall. Sharma notes that the worn out furniture and games are in need of a revamp, and hopes funding will be invested to upgrade this space and give students another space to unwind in. At the end of the day, he emphasizes his overarching focus on “pushing the [Horizon] platform forward.” Horizon’s main four platform points include affordability, culture, education, and Senate reform.

Sharma observes that WUSA’s last three consecutive presidents were never involved with WUSA prior to running for presidency. Thus, if elected as the first president in a while to have served as a former director, Sharma would bring a strong understanding of WUSA policies and the Horizon team. One initiative the Horizon team is especially proud of pushing forward, he said, was the Pay-What-You-Can program that has been running out of the Bomber. The program saw “over 100 meals a day [served] to students who are food insecure.”

What causes is Sharma most passionate about?

Sharma states that the Horizon party is interested in seeing changes made to students’ course perception surveys, degree tracking tools, and system level changes, the latter of which is a major priority. He emphasized that “doing good changes is important, but setting up the systems and abilities for the changes to happen in the first place can be a lot more impactful over time.” In this regard, some system level changes he touched on included reestablishing the Senate Undergraduate Caucus, promoting unified Senate voting, and developing an undergraduate TA/RA policy to protect student rights.

During his time on WUSA’s Board of Directors, he outlined three main initiatives he was able to support. The first initiative was making changes to the Student Life Endowment Fund. As chair, he supported government reform efforts and co-op advocacy. Through his work there, he was able to complete “a major rewrite of the fund’s bylaws and marketing efforts, which has led to about a 10% drop in opt-outs.” This has led in turn to giving out “about 300K a year in student grants.”

Thoughts on running unopposed: A signal for a deeper level problem?

Sharma is currently running unopposed for WUSA president, essentially meaning no other student has entered their name in the race. When asked how he feels about running unopposed, Sharma emphasized that he “believes in competitive elections.” He has even gone so far as to post on the r/uwaterloo Reddit page the day before nominations closed, offering to help obtain nominations for any student willing to run. No student took him up on his offer. “Students need a real choice and I was willing to do that,” he said. “Sadly, no one stepped up, but I really hope in the future they do.” He also touched on how the lack of opposition reflects the greater problem of how students may not “feel fully connected to WUSA and their community.”  Under a new governance structure that was established in 2022 ,, he described how many WUSA officers have “been acclaimed or no one runs at all”

Overall, Sharma hints at the deeper problem  of the disconnect between the student body and WUSA, mentioning the low turnout of candidates for previous president and vice president roles. He conceded that the past two years have been competitive, however the “president and VPA, GSR, government stakeholder relations, are [all] acclaimed.”

Regardless, Sharma does believe that the UW student body has real culture and passions, citing Wat2Do, a website developed by UW students that lists many events happening on campus daily. Sharma concluded, “We have real culture, but our culture is really unique.” Touching on the faculty-oriented culture at UW, he believes that the student body is forming greater connections, although “WUSA [needs] to connect to them better.”

Sharma concluded that if he could leave students with a message moving forward, “[he] would ask students to hold the board; hold Horizon accountable. We need to relentlessly push forward. That’s the job of our student union.”

He added, “We’ve had a strong team, we have strong experience, and we really hope to genuinely improve the experience of students [at UW].”

From one WUSA President to another: Insights from our current president

Damian Mikhail, the current WUSA president shared a few insights on his run as president to date, as well as what he hopes to see from the next presidency. If he could describe his presidency in one word, it would be“fast-paced,” thanks to how governance reform added to an already packed schedule.

“My hope is that life is made a little bit easier for the next President,” Mikhail noted. He hopes that his contributions and his time supporting governance changes made a lasting impact. Mikhail cited increasing club funding and revamping The Bomber as key successes in his presidency.

Asked if he had any advice for the next WUSA president, Mikhail described how a president is not necessarily judged by the amount of work or hours put in, but by the outcomes that follow. “If you really want to make an impact, you need to find your priorities early on and you need to focus on them,” he explained. Mikhail went on to share how it can be all too easy to become distracted by “a million other minor details”, but that distraction can minimize your capacity to make an impact. He believes a meaningful way to create meaningful outcomes for students is by “[finding] some big changes that you can make that will positively impact students.” Always keeping the broader vision in mind is something he highlighted as essential to being able to make a lasting impact.

Mikhail did not hesitate to describe Sharma’s WUSA expertise, which he believes is one of Sharma’s biggest strengths he would bring into the role of president.Mikhail remarked that “[he]  has one of the most impressive memories and knowledges[sic] of the systems of WUSA I’ve ever seen.” He shared that he often finds himself relying on Sharma for historical information “about how WUSA evolved and how WUSA works.” Furthermore, he emphasized that Sharma appears to understand “that students are looking for action and not just a president that keeps the lights on.”

Mikhail believes Sharma may be a transformative president “because he has the experience and the dedication to make change [happen],” describing him as a very kind and dedicated individual. 

Mikhail joked “Sometimes I’m confused how he’s doing so well in class because he’s always in the office talking about this new thing that needs to be done!”

He ended by sharing that he feels Samir would be a dedicated president, determined to bring students change. “I’m very hopeful for him,” he added.