Elnaghi: We Want to Regain Students’ Trust of the SU
By: Nouran Saleh
@nouranyasser162
Following their win yesterday in the Student Union election, The Caravan sat down with President-elect Sherif Elnaghi and his running mate Nour Barakat to find out how they plan on regaining their constituents’ trust.
Elnaghi is a Construction Engineering senior and the associate chairperson of Events and Entertainment at the SU. Vice-President-elect Barakat is a Political Science senior and the current chairperson of Community Engagement at the SU. Both say they will boost their efforts to ensure more transparency between students, the SU, and the university administration.
The Caravan: What is the message you’d like to communicate to the students after your win?
Barakat: It is a real honor that we won and I’m so grateful for everyone who believes in us as individuals that we can actually do something and actually create a union that is diverse and that is something we won’t take lightly. As I said in my speech, with privilege comes responsibility. As long as we have the privilege to be in the presidential office we will live up to our responsibility and remind ourselves why we are here.
What is the first thing you would implement from your plan if you win?
Barakat: There are two or three things that I’d like to implement from our plan simultaneously. When the handover occurs in early June, we aim to establish a strong and solid first impression with the new administration as soon as they hold office, as this is something that is going to stand for as long as the new administration exists and even beyond next year. So, it is really important to strategize early on. The second is to platform our constant cooperation with the [student] entities during the summer because that is something that is going to shape student life next year and really give that inspiring atmosphere for all entities to grow and to do as best as they can. The third thing is raising political awareness which comes hand in hand with everything we do whether its working with entities, the administration, or financial services. The first step in everything we do is raising political awareness, so it’s really important to establish the means and resources necessary to enable students to be politically aware from the moment we hold office, as this is going to help everyone throughout their years in university
What are the main areas you plan to focus on during your term?
Elnaghi: We are targeting the three stakeholders: the university, the students and the administration. We have eight pillars in our plan and we are targeting all the issues that exist in the university through these pillars. One of those pillars will be targeting a digital union, since after the pandemic we need to make sure that all the facilities that are or were available on the ground also exist online.
Do you have a plan for the issue of rising tuition fees?
Elnaghi: When it comes to the issue of tuition we can’t really promise that we can change anything because we simply can’t. However, what we are focusing on when it comes to tuition is to make sure that every student will be receiving services for every pound they pay. We want to make sure that we don’t pay for anything that we can’t use since we are online and focus mainly on the quality of education.
Barakat: The issue of tuition is a very complex one, and it’s not possible to change something about it because the budget of each year is planned the year before it. However, what we could do is utilize the two seats of SU representatives in the University Senate as well as one SU representative seat in the Budget Review Committee. So, we will be able to employ this channel of communication to present in all the meetings pertaining to tuition increase so we could negotiate two things. First, is the utility fees which are not integrated directly under the tuition fees [these include lab fees, and similar expenses]. Second, is to have a breakdown of tuition fees on Banner for every student so they know where their tuition fees are allocated.
What are your goals for next year?
Elnaghi: If we return to campus by next semester we would like to make sure that the SU is active and is represented to the three classes of students who didn’t experience the university on campus. Based on this, we would like to return the trust between the SU and every student once we’re back on campus. Next year, we have another challenge as well because we will have a new university administration with a new president so we want to have a good first impression. This will occur by redefining the SU and the representation of the SU for the students.
What were the biggest challenges you faced during this campaign?
Elnaghi: Our biggest challenge is that next year we will have three classes of students who didn’t have the on ground university experience, so we are trying our hardest in our campaign to inform the students who have only had an online experience in AUC about the SU and our direction.
Barakat: I think the biggest challenge this semester is that we are not fully on ground and not fully online, so it’s very hard to reach out to as many people as we want to, so the balance between the modules is difficult.
