Surprisingly, there will be a race for the four External Commission positions in this years Students’ Union election. On Wed., Feb. 10 there were only two candidates. Three more appeared before the extended deadline expired on the Thursday. The candidates are Toby White, Nadif Lalani, Mark Hoekstra, Andrew Ferguson, and Duncan Wojtaszek.
Andrew Ferguson is currently an Academic Commissioner and would like to serve the SU again in a different capacity.
"I feel that I did a good job of serving students on council, and I would like to serve the students again to ensure that the SU has a high quality of leadership," said Ferguson. "One of the problems potentially facing the External Commission is that should a certain pattern of people be elected, the commission would be left without a single person who had previously served on council."
Nadif Lalani is a first-time candidate in this election, who says he wants to do more.
"I’ve been a student at the university for three years and I don’t feel that I have really done anything. I want to give something back to the university," said Lalani. "I would like to lobby through the External office and national associations to put pressure on the people in power to give the student what they are actually paying for."
Duncan Wojtaszek said he wants to help the su in general.
"I don’t really see the position as a place where I can initiate policy," said Wojtaszek. "I have my own ideas on tuition and stuff, but I see the su as more of a collective and would like to work with them to fulfil group policy."
Mark Hoekstra and Toby White were unavailable for comment before press time.