Henry wants to shake the status quo

Alyssa Mosher – The Aquinian

Presidential candidate Ella Henry says the St. Thomas University Students’ Union can afford to do more than the status quo.

She says STU students need a vision.

“We’ve got all these great people and great ideas at STU,” said Henry, who currently sits as vice president education on the STUSU. “We should bring those into the students’ union and really work to make a students’ union that, you know, everyone feels is theirs.”

If elected, Henry wants to expand the advocacy of the SU by lobbying to extend New Brunswick’s tuition freeze to international tuition, as well as other fees students owe to the university.

She also wants to increase grants for students and put the union’s accumulated surplus of $100,000 to good use.

Henry says students are the ultimate “political force” behind this advocacy, not the SU.

Though her vision is ambitious, Henry thinks “you might as well try for all of it and get half of it than try for just a little bit so we can make sure we can achieve it.”

She said it’s all “within our reach” because “a students’ union is an organization that really has the ability to … bring students together.”

Come election days this Wednesday and Thursday, Henry said that students need to understand who they’re voting for before they check the ballot box.

“I think … everyone [needs] to look at the platforms, talk to the candidates as much as they can and figure out who they really want to lead the students’ union,” she said.