Photo Credit: Sheridon Gayle

By: Hadifa Hibbert| Vice President 1, USM Alumni Association

Today we have seen the debate of 13 prospective candidates who are seeking to represent students within the United Student Movement. It is a critical period, one that will be filled with many challenges amidst this pandemic but we must continue to live, learn and socialize.

As students, our voice is our vote, and it’s crucial that we let our voices be heard, I cannot reiterate this enough. We need to pay keen attention to proposed policies that each prospective candidate will pitch, then we need to analyze these policies in order to make informed decisions before we cast our votes.

We must then decide that whatever policies are pitched consists of the following characteristics:

Relevance

Policies must be relevant to our environment, NCU, they must be in relation to things that will affect us as students, both on and off-campus and they should be recognizable and relate to our everyday experiences as students.

Realistic

A policy must make sense point-blank! And I would hope every candidate consulted the students in the process of preparing a run for office when formulating their policies. Realistic policies recognize and acknowledge the challenges of students and then eliminate or ease these challenges.

Attainability

Any policy that’s been proposed must be able to be successfully implemented. This can only be achieved by knowing what’s attainable by consulting with key stakeholders. Too often there are plans and policies that are put forward that are not attainable.

Adaptability

Any proposed policy or plan must be able to adapt to change especially in these times that require constant changes to how we do things.

Inclusivity

Proposed plans and policies must be super-inclusive to all, this way it can support it.

These are some of the characteristics that I suggest students should look for in these manifestos so that we can vote policies and not popularity, because our wellbeing and future depends on making the right choices come March 16, 2021.

The views expressed in this article are solely the writer’s and not of the Hilltop Trumpet.