Editor’s note: All opinions expressed in this article belong to their respective author(s). Check our section “Voices” dedicated to opinion pieces on AUI Chronicle. This piece has been co-authored with Karim Bahoum.
Besides being an amazing and memorable Nass El Ghiwan’s song, Fine ghadi biya khouya is the right sentence to describe what’s happening at AUI these days. While I wish I was as creative as my peers in The Chronicle’s team in 2016, who published an excellent interview with then-VPSA, Dr. Abdelhamid Lotfi, and other heads of units at AUI, about the state of AUI and its future, I find myself obliged to re-use their title to discuss many relevant issues at our university.
SGA – Good progress, but structural issues still hinder the viability of our model of student representation
In a week where students are expected to vote for the “next generation of senators” for the 2021 mandate, I believe we should take a step back and look at the Student Government Association’s structure at AUI, and how it affects the credibility established, the ability to push for improvement and change, as well as its sustainability in the future. Since its revival in 2019, the SGA had to work from scratch on a model that allows students to voice their concerns, be more involved in the decision-making process in the university, and lead our community’s efforts for continuous improvement.
Several key milestones were reached in the two previous mandates of the SGA, not only in terms of concrete achievements for students but also in terms of institutional recognition and credibility with different stakeholders at the university. The experience showed how student representatives can bring tremendous value to decision-making in both academic affairs and student affairs. Besides, a greater portion of students also gained confidence in the representative entity and its role in key decisions made by the AUI administration. Unfortunately, these advancements tend to hide a set of difficulties and challenges that the SGA suffers from internally due to its structure and our current (flawed) understanding of what the entity is.
Obviously, the SGA is nothing without committed students who are deeply involved in the future of their university and the well-being of their peers, but one element we always forget is that this commitment or interest does not get instilled randomly for students, especially for new students, it has to be fostered. The SGA was not able in both mandates to create a deep connection between the entity and students throughout the year (through events, presence of representatives in public events, volunteering programs, community projects, etc.).
Without this connection, it is extremely difficult to convince students of the importance of the SGA, to find good potential profiles for the future mandates, and to familiarize students with how the SGA works internally. Students are then not very connected to their representatives, which creates both a communication and representation vacuum, in our community.
The SGA also relies heavily on how responsive and cooperative the administration is. As seen last summer, some matters such as fees were simply dismissed by the university leaving the SGA unable to create a greater debate about the issue among the community. This dependence reduces the scope of influence of the SGA in important matters at the university, especially that students will usually complain and not support the SGA when it comes to key moments of confrontation (again, my previous point is extremely relevant to this issue).
For the future, the SGA has to rethink its internal structure to ensure a greater division of responsibilities and a greater sense of accountability to the institution but also students. To ensure its sustainability, the SGA cannot operate with a huge discrepancy between active senators and non-active senators, which can be as much due to some internal dynamics that affect individual commitment.
Certainly, the SGA experience at AUI is very young, and our ability to reach this level in such a short period is something all stakeholders at the university are to be commended for. Nonetheless, it is important for us to always reflect on our experience, and improve whatever we can, as the SGA will have to face important challenges in the future armed with a better internal structure, communication, and efforts for the sustainability of the entity itself.
Again and again: Growth, but at what cost?
One of the challenges I am referring to is the challenge posed by the growth-oriented strategy of the university for the next 5 years. While the university’s strategic plan is still not publicly available, no one can deny that the university is heading towards a fast increase of enrollment numbers in both Fall/Spring semesters. As we have reported last week, the university will have to manage a higher number of students relative to the beds/classrooms available. The latter was further confirmed by the latest survey sent by the SGA, to collect student opinions regarding this issue.
The central responsibility of the SGA in this strategy should not just be related to logistical management of students on campus, rather, the student representatives will have to raise several questions regarding the quality standards that the university is setting for enrollment at AUI, the quality of teaching and research at our university, the much-needed improvement in campus experience, and the success of our graduates.
Finally, the focus on student representation will have to be there to remind everyone that our university should not adopt a fully business-oriented approach, solely based on numbers and KPIs, rather, it should combine those efforts with qualitative improvements for our university.
