An Interview with Student Union President Candidate Alessandro D’Aquino

On January 29th, polls will open for The U’s annual general election, where students will have the opportunity to cast their votes for both Student Union President and Executive Vice President roles. This will conclude the ongoing campaign period for each candidate, with there being three students running for Executive Vice President, and only one for the Presidential role.

We interviewed said Presidential candidate, current Executive Vice President and 3rd year finance honours student, Alessandro D’Aquino. He spoke about his campaign, promoting student advocacy, and plans to combat adversities StFX students face.

Kamryn Aitchison (KA): As you are the only candidate for President in this year’s election, why do you think you are the only one running for this position?

Alessandro D’Aquino (AD): Honestly, I think it’s one of the main problems of the student union and the university in general. There is low engagement with the student union. We already tried to work on it this year, and personally I try to do a good job. As you can see there are three people running for my role. The people that are running, two of them work with me. One of them is the Academic Advocate and the other is the Research and Policy Associate. Other than that, there is low motivation for students to apply. For example, I opened a senate position in October, and I had no applicants.

Alessandro expands further on this issue, explaining that a common misconception about The U is one must already hold some sort of position within the union to run for such titles.

AD: Honestly, I’m not sure why no one is running for president, I would say some people think to be the president you must already be inside, which is not true. If you have good intentions, you’re a good person, you have high engagement, you can still do it. So, we need to understand better why students don’t see these as bigger opportunities, because these are good opportunities for their resume, and good leadership roles.”

KA: How will your experiences as Executive VP play into your role as president?

AD: As I said before, you can apply for president if you were not in the student union, but for me it’s given me the right knowledge for what to do next year. I have the right training, and I have a good relationship with everyone on campus, so even that is going to be helpful for me. Knowing the administration and the deans is going to be very important for me. Like if I want to push the university for policies or projects.

KA: In an Instagram post made by The U, each candidate provides a statement on their current plans and goals if elected. In these, student advocacy appears as a common theme. What exactly does student advocacy mean to you, and how do you plan to put it into practice?

AD: One of my main goals is to represent the students on many levels, like in academics, or even in terms of mental health. There are so many levels, probably more than 10 that we have to control. What I can tell you is that advocacy is playing a big role this year at the student union. At the same time what we have to do is continue on this path next year.

Alongside the many facets of student representation which Alessandro discussed, he also explains as to why there can often be a lack of continuous advocacy for students.

AD: Sometimes what happens is that students start working on policies or doing a good job with advocacy, and when there is this switch of the team, basically those policies and those projects are lost. So next year, our main goal would try to be consistent and keep working on what we are already doing good on this year.

KA: What experiences and skills do you have that would make you a good candidate for the position

AD: I don’t like talking about myself a lot, I normally prefer other people telling me what skills I have. What I will say is what I normally hear from others, which is the way I engage with people is very helpful to them. I’m very transparent with people. I always try to motivate the team, and I bring new ideas. I’m very creative.

KA: What sort of policies do you intend to work on when elected?

AD: As Executive Vice President this year, one of my priorities was AI. As of now we don’t have an AI policy. Every professor can deal with AI in the way they prefer. To be fair under student perspective but also professor perspective, it would be very important for us to have an AI policy that’s gonna state everything. AI is definitely going to be one of my main priorities, but I know that Hayley, who is the VP of external affairs is working on other policies, so my goal would be to continue what she’s been working on, either with her or the person who is coming into her role

The topic of AI and the lack of policies for it at StFX has been a popular discussion around campus in recent years, with regulations for varying between professors, often creating conflicting rules and understanding for students.

AD: Other than that, I’ve been working on the grade appeal process, it’s less of a policy, but it’s still something very important for the university. It’s not very easy for students to figure out how to make a grade appeal, it’s very unclear. I was able, with the Dean of Science, to rework it, and we submitted a proposal, so that was a very important step, and that’s advocacy.

KA: What inspired you to run for president?

AD: I want to run for president because we have been achieving a lot since I was here, but I think we can still do a lot more. Since my second year I started doing a lot with societies, working jobs, like a CA. I generally did a lot, so I care about the experiences of the students at StFX, probably more than mine. I would be happy to know all students are comfortable to be here and living their best lives.

KA: What do u think is one of the biggest problems for students on campus?

AD: If we’re talking about on campus, I definitely think we should have more events for first years in residence. [The lack of events within residence are] also causing problems for Residence Life and for the students themselves. Another problem we’re already working on are textbooks, because they are very expensive. Even for me, my finance course textbook was $160. It’s difficult for many students to face these expenses that we’re not even expecting.

Alessandro continues, expanding on his plans to combat the rising textbook prices students face.

AD: I’ve been talking with the registrar and the librarian, and so hopefully, I’m not a hundred percent sure that next year we will have a new column when you register for courses; that will tell you which courses have expensive textbooks. I tried to push to present the exact cost of textbooks for each course, but that was very difficult.

KA: Why did you choose to come to StFX?

AD: I’m from Italy, so one night I was surfing on the internet, and I was looking for a university for financing in Canada. I was studying in Italy, but I didn’t like it that much. I also was feeling that I had the need to leave and go somewhere else for the experience. I applied to some universities, and I was supposed to go to McMaster, but then I saw StFX. I was reading so many articles about the culture and everything and was like, ‘that could be my place’, so I decided to come here. It’s not for the program itself, it’s more for the experience.

KA: Where is the best place to get pizza in Antigonish?

AD: For me it’s like ‘let’s go to Spin’ and then Kenny’s is there, so we go there. Very rarely if Kenny’s is too busy, then we go to The Wheel. But my place is Kenny’s.

Polls will open on Thursday, January 29th, and all students will have the opportunity to vote for President and Executive Vice President. Students will be invited via a link sent to their student email.

The following statement was provided via email by Alessandro D’Aquino after his interview:

I care about students and their experience, and I care about the work. Students deal with academic pressure, financial pressure, and a lot behind the scenes. The Union is here to support them through that with clarity, purpose, and consistency. There’s a lot of work the Union does every day that students don’t see, but it matters, in advocacy, in policy, and in how the University listens. This year taught me that caring means advocating for students in classrooms and committees, helping them through policies they shouldn’t have to navigate alone, and working with the University so progress doesn’t stop every year. I want continuity that becomes impact. I’m running for President because I want to make a difference students can feel.