People Of Colour

STATEMENTS

Mohamed Hadi and Emily AlRamadhan- Community

Hey guys! We’re Mohamed and Emily, we’re international students studying science and we’re super keen on becoming your office bearers next year! Engaging with the POC department over the past two years has given us safe spaces to express ourselves and learn from different cultures while exploring our intersectionalities. However, we are disappointed with the current state of the department because of its low student engagement and transparency. It was frustrating for Mohamed to face unneeded difficulties and obstacles when coordinating the only safe space for Bla(c) k students on campus. This experience has shown us the realities and the fundamental problems that the department has. Because of this, we are driven to reform and improve our department. We want to bring a bigger sense of community by bi-weekly newsletters, multiple engaging campaigns, and hold public informal forums to continuously receive feedback and understand what the community needs. A big part of our campaign is to work on improving mental health services by establishing in-union Bla(c)k and POC run mental health services in conjunction with UMSU international, while fighting harder for more psychologists of colour in the university’s CAPS services. In addition, its essential to collaborate with UMSU Indigenous in our conversations and bring them to the table, by a campaign about what constitutes good allyship, establishing affirmative action for Bla(c)k and POC students on committees and lead an effort with UMSU education to decolonize subjects by diversifying reading lists and resources. There’s a lot more that we want to do, but we have hopefully given you an insight into what we dream that this department can become, and what we hope is a legacy of community-grounded activism. We want the strong vision that we have to inspire people for years to come and create

Nicole Nabbout & Comfort Agunbiade (Stand Up!)

Hi everyone! We are Nicole (she/her) and Comfort (she/her) and we’re running with Stand Up! for the People of Colour Office! Nicole is a first generation Lebanese woman completing a Bachelor of Arts and Comfort is a first generation Nigerian woman completing a Bachelor of Arts! Through involvement in the POC space, we have both developed a significant passion for activism and fighting for student services. Students of Colour have a right to feel safe, included and empowered to voice their concerns in an environment that equips them with the resources to do so. More particularly, we will continue to lobby the University to increase the accessibility of mental health services for students of colour. POC do not see themselves represented within the services that are available to them at their University and this needs to change immediately. This includes campaigns around increasing representation within CAPS, extending free CAPS sessions and increasing funding. We will also be fighting for an autonomous POC space that will be used for all collectives, events and workshops. As well as this, we will campaign to increase POC representation and expression within the university curriculum through advocating for more encompassing subjects. Our fight for worker’s rights will also continue with the expansion of the POC Workers and Activist Collective, where we will fight against one of the greatest barriers to an accessible education. Finally, we hope to form an UMSU Anti-Racism and Discrimation Working Group to fight against the racial violence that has undoubtedly risen in recent times. POC students deserve better than a University that constantly neglects them - we know it is more important than ever to keep up our fight and this change will only occur through a progressive student union. Vote [1] Stand Up! Keep up the Fight!

Ariana Tugaga

No statement recieved

TAOYANG LIU

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