SU by-election 2021: Jaime Pablo
By Cristina Paolozzi, Sophia Lopez and Enobong Ukpong, October 10 2021—
The Students’ Union (SU) is holding a by-election for several different positions, one of which is the Haskayne School of Business faculty representative. The Gauntlet sat down with Jaime Pablo to talk more about his platform and what he plans to do if elected to the position.
A fifth-year student in the Haskayne School of Business, Pablo’s main concerns focus on student life and advocacy. His positions working with faculty organizations and other third-party business organizations on campus points to his experiences working with students consistently at the undergraduate level.
“I just love being involved with the community, I love connecting with people,” he said. “I love helping students out and being that connection between industry representatives and students.”
Like most candidates, Pablo aims to continue advocacy around tuition increases. Although the SU has been advocating for more thorough consultation from the university administration, Pablo believes that more transparency is needed for Haskayne students.
Pablo said that he is determined to figure out where the majority of the university’s funds are going to try to figure out how to move forward without putting students’ financials at risk.
“This is really what I want to do, is just try to find out where the finances are going and how we can potentially cut down in certain areas,” he said.
Although his platform states he will “fight relentlessly to slow these tuition hikes down,” it is unclear how he plans to achieve this, other than probably continuing to support the SU’s initiatives.
Another one of Pablo’s platform points regards his commitment to in-person events for Haskayne students as soon as possible. He said that one of the biggest assets to students studying business is the opportunity to network with other professionals in the field.
With the COVIDSafe Campus policy the university introduced earlier this year as well as the waivers many clubs and other organizations are asked to sign on behalf of the university, Pablo believes there is already a solid foundation to have safe and successful in-person events.
“We’ve already got the COVIDSafe Campus policy to have in-person classes carried out and to have in-person club meetings as well,” he said. “It really seems like it’s certainly possible, it’s just no one’s really making a push for it to happen.”
Alternatively, Pablo will also be advocating for professors to make recordings of their lectures for students who are unable to come to class.
“After a year of online classes, every professor should have the lecture recordings needed to support these students,” reads his platform.
Pablo also sees the need to update how USRIs are used during the semester. He speaks on how handing out USRIs at the end of the semester does not allow the feedback being given by students to be applied to the rest of the course.
“When I was developing my platform items, I reached out to a bunch of my connections and tried to ask them what some issues were about the university,” he said. “And one of the things they said was that nobody really cares about USRIs and that everybody’s apathetic towards them.”
Pablo believes that handing out USRIs during the middle of the semester would be a more proactive approach.
“Having USRIs more towards the middle of the semester would allow people to give useful feedback in the middle of the semester, where it actually would matter and would actually take effect while they’re potentially still in the classroom.”
Overall, Pablo knows the issues that are affecting students, and has plenty of experience working with undergraduate students. However, there are some areas in which his advocacy seems a little vague.
Online voting in the SU by-election will take place Oct. 13–15 and can be done through the myUofC Student Centre. Voting begins at 9 a.m. on Oct. 13 and closes at 4 p.m. on Oct. 15. To learn more about Jaime Pablo and his campaign check out his and the other candidates’ platforms online. All undergraduate students registered for the Fall 2021 semester are eligible to vote.