Heer drops out, Dhaliwal to run uncontested
Following a 10-day nomination period for open positions on the Student Union Society (SUS) board of directors, two candidates were nominated for the vice president external (VPE) position.
UFV’s student body would have chosen between Rajdeep Dhaliwal and Manveer Heer for VPE during the upcoming by-election, with voting set to open Oct. 19 and close Oct. 21 at midnight. However, Heer withdrew her bid late last week, leaving only Dhaliwal in the race. The SUS elections webpage cites “personal reasons” as the cause for Heer’s withdrawal.
No students have been nominated for the other positions still open on the SUS board, which include representatives from the school of graduate studies, faculties of applied and technical studies and access and continuing studies, and an Aboriginal representative.
According to her candidate Q&A video, Dhaliwal’s biggest focus once she assumed office was to be lobbying UFV to transition to a per-credit tuition system for international students. In the video, which was released Oct. 5, she said that “Currently, international students pay for a full 15 credits, even though they may take less,” and proposed doing away with the 15-credit flat rate. However, the university already decided to alter its 15-credit requirement payment system this March; international students now pay per-credit tuition if they wish to take more courses past the new 12-credit minimum.
The Cascade reached out to Dhaliwal for clarification, and she said via email that she became aware of the inaccuracy of her statement shortly after the video was filmed. However, she said she plans to continue pushing UFV on this issue despite the changes.
“Though I’m glad to see this change in tuition for international students, I believe that UFV hasn’t went [sic] far enough,” said Dhaliwal. “I intend to advocate for a fully credit-based tuition system or at the very least change the base amount from 12 to nine credits.”
Other notable goals listed in Dhaliwal’s candidate statement include seeking input from the student body about SUS’s involvement in the two external advocacy groups of which it is a member: the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations and the Alliance of B.C. Students. She said she hopes to establish “an avenue to collect student input to direct advocacy efforts and policy development,” and also to lobby UFV to cap tuition increases for international students at two per cent.
Hayden Buker, chief elections officer for SUS, confirmed that following Heer’s withdrawal, the election will be going ahead as planned.
“Our current plan is to continue as scheduled with the voting,” he said. “However, we are looking to past precedent at SUS and in other schools on ways to ensure the voting is free and fair when there is only a single candidate.”
[Note: A version of this article that was missing part of Dhaliwal’s statement was previously posted in error.]
