Ella Henry wants to move ahead on issues like a campus bookstore, lobbying government for lower tuition and possibly moving the student body to the more activist Canadian Federation of Students.

But at least one of the incumbent’s opponents, Mark Livingstone, says students need to slow down and think carefully before making potentially costly decisions.

“Failure to eliminate the deficit and go forward with the bookstore and take a gamble on it is enough, on its own, to bankrupt the students’ union potentially within a couple years or face a massive increase in student union fees.”

But Henry, a fourth-year sociology and economics student, says there will be some level of risk with any new union service.

“What we’re trying to do is minimize the level of risk first of all,” she said. “If we don’t ever want to take a risk, we’d never have things like a bus pass, we wouldn’t have a health plan or Safe Wheels.”

Michael Manning, the third candidate in the STUSU presidential election, was unavailable for comment. He was attending a Model United Nations conference in Boston. Manning is a third-year student and political science and international relations major. (Update: Manning has since withdrawn from the election)

Livingstone, a fourth-year economics student, ran for president last year and came in third. He wants a balanced union that works for everyone on campus.

“I think they need a reasoned and moderate voice to stand up for everybody,” he said.

Livingstone would avoid things like unfurling banners during provincial budget meetings. Instead, he plans to focus on direct talks with the government and the university administration.

Henry first got involved in student politics because she believed the union was wasting its chance to advocate for students.

“What we are doing is saying you can’t actually just pick one of either public advocacy or meetings with politicians behind closed doors.

“They work together.”

Key election issues

STUSU Bookstore

Henry has been exploring the possibility of a student’s union run bookstore since October. She says the UNB bookstore is too expensive and it doesn’t properly stock textbooks. She says a STUSU bookstore could generate money for the union.

A committee has been formed to look into the idea. The union’s finance committee is authorized to spend up to $5,000 to hire consultants to draft a business plan and determine whether it would be financially viable.

Though some candidates have claimed this money is already spent, Henry said that isn’t true. She wants a proposal ready in April.

“My goal would be to have a vote on the bookstore at our annual general meeting where any student can show up and vote.”

Henry would use the extra budgetary fund to establish the bookstore and has made it part of her platform.

The fund is the accumulated surpluses from previous years and has been used in the past to pay off deficits at the end of the year. Last Friday the fund had $124,881.

Livingstone, who would rather invest the money, says he isn’t sold on the idea of a bookstore.

“I don’t think it’s going to be as good as an investment as is being lauded to be,” said Livingstone.

But if the committee thinks the bookstore could be profitable, Livingstone said he would go forward with it once the deficit is eliminated.

Deficit

All of the candidates agree that reining in the union’s deficit is a priority, but disagree on specifics.

The union relies on fees paid by full and part-time students to operate. The fees raise more than $250,000 a year. Because the money is dependent on enrolment, which has been in decline, the union has had less money to work with in recent years.

At the beginning of the year the union budgets to run a deficit. But at the end of the year not all the money they planned to spend is actually spent, making the actual deficit either non-existent or smaller. To cover any remaining difference, money is withdrawn from the extra budgetary fund.

Henry adds that council has already cut one-third of the deficit and there are a lot of misconceptions about how the budget works.

And this year one of the ways she hopes to make money is by selling yearbooks instead of giving them away. She is also trying to get the university to fund a proposed carpooling service.

Livingstone said he’d want to consult with students before cutting costs, but won’t get into specifics about what to cut.

“It’s hard to, you know, propose anything without a full understanding of how exactly everything works and the total efficiencies and inefficiencies of it,” said Livingstone.

Livingstone did say he would be willing to reduce the president’s salary by $1,800 which is 20 per cent.

At $9,000, the salary is slightly lower than the average salary of union presidents at universities of comparable sizes to STU.

But Henry said it would be up to council to decide whether or not to cut her salary. She called Livingston’s wage-cut a “sort of a political ploy to sort of gain votes without a lot thought.”

CASA

Before the end of her term, Henry also wants to begin a review of the union’s membership in the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations.

CASA is one of two major federal post-secondary education lobbying groups. The Canadian Federation of Students is the second. CFS takes a more activist approach such as the recent protest in Nova Scotia that drew thousands to downtown Halifax to speak out against cuts the province will be making to post-secondary education. It has been involved in legal battles with other students’ unions who have tried to leave the organization.

Livingstone believes STUSU should remain a member of CASA, which has focused on more direct lobbying efforts.

He said it is “a straight forward and balanced organization…and their only goal is to make sure that post-secondary education if affordable, accessible and effective.”

Livingstone added he doesn’t want to go to an organization that is a “little bit more ideologically driven.”

In an interview last semester, Henry said there is no hidden agenda or conspiracy about leaving CASA.

“When we are talking about spending thousands of dollars on something we should review whether it is worth it for students periodically. I think that’s just common sense,” she said last week.

The review process would require multiple votes and possibly more than one year if council decides to leave CASA.