SU general election: VP Academic
Zoe Zeritsch
Zoe Zeritsch is a third-year honours Biochemistry student wanting to go into pharmaceutical research after their studies are complete. An external candidate, new to the workings of the Students’ Union, Zeritsch is running uncontested to be the next Vice President Academic.
Zeritsch believes that academic burnout and the stigma around heavy workloads is not something students should have to face.
“Part of the reason why I want to run is because I don’t think that that is normal or should be normalized,” said Zeritsch when they sat down with the Gauntlet for an interview.
In running uncontested, Zeritsch sees an opportunity to go beyond the day-to-day of traditional campaigning.
“A lot of it will just be trying to speak to students about their issues and gaining a nice temperature check about the current status of student academic issues,” said Zeritsch.
One policy proposal that students will be keeping an eye on is the pressure on the university to establish an AI usage policy, something that is sorely missing from a top research university and which has certainly become a hot-button issue for students in the last few years.
As artificial intelligence (AI) is more frequently used in the classroom, some students are left with questions about how AI usage will be regulated.
One uncomfortable instance of AI being used in the classroom by instructors comes from a personal experience of Zeritsch’s, in which students using Microsoft’s Copilot were graded based on their conversation with the large language model (LLM).
“I don’t think that anybody should be graded off of that, whereas a class discussion between classmates could do the same thing and possibly be more productive for the students,” said Zeritsch.
Another aspect important for students is Zeritsch’s desire to fight for more clarity around program advising, and the implementation of a system to follow degree progression — one that would be easier for students to understand.
Zeritsch wants to remove and replace the bloated content coming from the UCalgary website, and ensure something more accessible is created so students can see exactly what the next steps in their degree are.
In their other pledge to improve learning environments, Zeritsch advocates for wellness days and flexible deadlines that can be used at students’ discretion. This goal is admirable, but it’s hard to see exactly how it could be done.
However, when asked about the push for all graded components to be released before final examination, Zeritsch provided a refreshingly honest answer in comparison to previous candidates who made sweeping pledges:
“If I’m able to advocate for the release of graded materials and help professors and [teaching assistants] with that transition, I’ll consider it a win,” said Zeristch. “And I really want to help students feel more at ease about their stance in the class.”
When it comes to following in the footsteps of their would-be predecessor, Zeritsch said she looks to build out on the current VP Academic’s work of urging coordinators to use open-access resources and limiting mandatory course expenditures.
But where the two diverge is Zeritsch’s belief in going out and speaking to students more to garner support for their advocacy in office: “In my case, I really want to flip that switch and get more hands-on with this position if elected,” said Zeritsch.
Overall, Zeritsch is a passionate candidate who clearly cares deeply for students. It seems likely that she’ll thrive in such a position and bring a fresh set of eyes into the SU office.